Apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, apparatus for receiving broadcast signals, method for transmitting broadcast signals and method for receiving broadcast signals

ABSTRACT

A method and an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals thereof are disclosed. The apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, the apparatus comprises an input formatter for input formatting input streams, wherein the input formatting includes a divider for dividing the input streams into each data transmission path including one or multiple service or service component, wherein each of the input streams includes at least one IP (Internet Protocol) packet having a variable length, wherein each IP packet includes a packet header and a packet payload, a compressor for compressing each the packet header, an encoder for encoding data in the each data transmission path, a frame builder for building at least one signal frame, wherein each the signal frame includes the encoded data and a signaling data and a modulator for modulating at least one of the signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 61/938,664, filed on Feb. 11, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals and methods for transmitting and receiving broadcast signals.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

As analog broadcast signal transmission comes to an end, various technologies for transmitting/receiving digital broadcast signals are being developed. A digital broadcast signal may include a larger amount of video/audio data than an analog broadcast signal and further include various types of additional data in addition to the video/audio data.

That is, a digital broadcast system can provide HD (high definition) images, multi-channel audio and various additional services. However, data transmission efficiency for transmission of large amounts of data, robustness of transmission/reception networks and network flexibility in consideration of mobile reception equipment need to be improved for digital broadcast.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals and an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services and methods for transmitting and receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for transmitting broadcast signals to multiplex data of a broadcast transmission/reception system providing two or more different broadcast services in a time domain and transmit the multiplexed data through the same RF signal bandwidth and an apparatus and method for receiving broadcast signals corresponding thereto.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals and methods for transmitting and receiving broadcast signals to classify data corresponding to services by components, transmit data corresponding to each component as a data pipe, receive and process the data.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals and methods for transmitting and receiving broadcast signals to signal signaling information necessary to provide broadcast signals.

TECHNICAL SOLUTION

To achieve the object and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a method for transmitting broadcast signals, the method comprises input formatting input streams, wherein the input formatting includes dividing the input streams into each data transmission path including one or multiple service or service component, wherein each of the input streams includes at least one IP (Internet Protocol) packet having a variable length, wherein each IP packet includes a packet header and a packet payload, compressing each the packet header, encoding data in the each data transmission path, building at least one signal frame, wherein each the signal frame includes the encoded data and a signaling data, modulating at least one of the signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme and transmitting the broadcast signals carrying at least one of the modulated signal frame.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS

The present invention can process data according to service characteristics to control QoS (Quality of Services) for each service or service component, thereby providing various broadcast services.

The present invention can achieve transmission flexibility by transmitting various broadcast services through the same RF signal bandwidth.

The present invention can improve data transmission efficiency and increase robustness of transmission/reception of broadcast signals using a MIMO system.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide broadcast signal transmission and reception methods and apparatus capable of receiving digital broadcast signals without error even with mobile reception equipment or in an indoor environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an input formatting block according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an input formatting block according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an input formatting block according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a BICM block according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a BICM block according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a frame building block according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates an OFDM generation block according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a frame structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates a signaling hierarchy structure of the frame according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 illustrates preamble signaling data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates PLS1 data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 illustrates PLS2 data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 illustrates PLS2 data according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 illustrates a logical structure of a frame according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 illustrates PLS mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 illustrates EAC mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 illustrates FIC mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 illustrates a type of DP according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 illustrates DP mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 illustrates an FEC structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 illustrates a bit interleaving according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 illustrates a cell-word demultiplexing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 illustrates a time interleaving according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 illustrates the basic operation of a twisted row-column block interleaver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 illustrates an operation of a twisted row-column block interleaver according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 illustrates a diagonal-wise reading pattern of a twisted row-column block interleaver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 illustrates interlaved XFECBLOCKs from each interleaving array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30 illustrates a mode adaptation module of the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 31 illustrates an example of splitting an IP packet when the IP packet is transmitted through the Ethernet network.

FIGS. 32( a) and (b) illustrate IP packets input to the input formatting module 1000, and FIG. 32( c) illustrates an IP packet output through an IP repacking scheme performed by the input formatting module 1000 according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 33 illustrates a flowchart describing an IP repacking scheme according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 34 illustrates a table for comparing overhead sizes of packet headers according to data lengths when MTUs of each of IPv4 and IPv6 packets to which header compression is not applied are 1500, 8000 and 16000.

FIG. 35 illustrates a graph that expresses the table of FIG. 34.

FIG. 36 illustrates a table for comparing overhead sizes of packet headers according to data lengths when MTUs of each of IPv4 and IPv6 packets to which header compression is applied are 1500, 8000 and 16000.

FIG. 37 is a graph of the table of FIG. 36.

FIG. 38 illustrates an output processor module 8300 of a broadcast signal reception apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 39 illustrates an IP repacking module of the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 40 illustrates another example of splitting an IP packet when the IP packet is transmitted through the Ethernet network.

FIG. 41 illustrates an IP packet input to an input formatting module according to another embodiment of the present invention and an IP packet output through the IP repacking scheme performed by the input formatting module.

FIG. 42 illustrates an IP packet input to an input formatting module according to another embodiment of the present invention and an IP packet output through the IP repacking scheme performed by the input formatting module.

FIG. 43 illustrates a method of transmitting a broadcast signal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 44 illustrates a method of receiving a broadcast signal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The detailed description, which will be given below with reference to the accompanying drawings, is intended to explain exemplary embodiments of the present invention, rather than to show the only embodiments that can be implemented according to the present invention. The following detailed description includes specific details in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without such specific details.

Although most terms used in the present invention have been selected from general ones widely used in the art, some terms have been arbitrarily selected by the applicant and their meanings are explained in detail in the following description as needed. Thus, the present invention should be understood based upon the intended meanings of the terms rather than their simple names or meanings.

The present invention provides apparatuses and methods for transmitting and receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services. Future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention include a terrestrial broadcast service, a mobile broadcast service, a UHDTV service, etc. The present invention may process broadcast signals for the future broadcast services through non-MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) or MIMO according to one embodiment. A non-MIMO scheme according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a MISO (Multiple Input Single Output) scheme, a SISO (Single Input Single Output) scheme, etc.

While MISO or MIMO uses two antennas in the following for convenience of description, the present invention is applicable to systems using two or more antennas.

The present invention may defines three physical layer (PL) profiles—base, handheld and advanced profiles—each optimized to minimize receiver complexity while attaining the performance required for a particular use case. The physical layer (PHY) profiles are subsets of all configurations that a corresponding receiver should implement.

The three PHY profiles share most of the functional blocks but differ slightly in specific blocks and/or parameters. Additional PHY profiles can be defined in the future. For the system evolution, future profiles can also be multiplexed with the existing profiles in a single RF channel through a future extension frame (FEF). The details of each PHY profile are described below.

1. Base Profile

The base profile represents a main use case for fixed receiving devices that are usually connected to a roof-top antenna. The base profile also includes portable devices that could be transported to a place but belong to a relatively stationary reception category. Use of the base profile could be extended to handheld devices or even vehicular by some improved implementations, but those use cases are not expected for the base profile receiver operation.

Target SNR range of reception is from approximately 10 to 20 dB, which includes the 15 dB SNR reception capability of the existing broadcast system (e.g. ATSC A/53). The receiver complexity and power consumption is not as critical as in the battery-operated handheld devices, which will use the handheld profile. Key system parameters for the base profile are listed in below table 1.

TABLE 1 LDPC codeword length 16K, 64K bits Constellation size 4~10 bpcu (bits per channel use) Time de-interleaving memory size ≦2¹⁹ data cells Pilot patterns Pilot pattern for fixed reception FFT size 16K, 32K points

2. Handheld Profile

The handheld profile is designed for use in handheld and vehicular devices that operate with battery power. The devices can be moving with pedestrian or vehicle speed. The power consumption as well as the receiver complexity is very important for the implementation of the devices of the handheld profile. The target SNR range of the handheld profile is approximately 0 to 10 dB, but can be configured to reach below 0 dB when intended for deeper indoor reception.

In addition to low SNR capability, resilience to the Doppler Effect caused by receiver mobility is the most important performance attribute of the handheld profile. Key system parameters for the handheld profile are listed in the below table 2.

TABLE 2 LDPC codeword length 16K bits Constellation size 2~8 bpcu Time de-interleaving memory size ≦2¹⁸ data cells Pilot patterns Pilot patterns for mobile and indoor reception FFT size 8K, 16K points

3. Advanced Profile

The advanced profile provides highest channel capacity at the cost of more implementation complexity. This profile requires using MIMO transmission and reception, and UHDTV service is a target use case for which this profile is specifically designed. The increased capacity can also be used to allow an increased number of services in a given bandwidth, e.g., multiple SDTV or HDTV services.

The target SNR range of the advanced profile is approximately 20 to 30 dB. MIMO transmission may initially use existing elliptically-polarized transmission equipment, with extension to full-power cross-polarized transmission in the future. Key system parameters for the advanced profile are listed in below table 3.

TABLE 3 LDPC codeword length 16K, 64K bits Constellation size 8~12 bpcu Time de-interleaving memory size ≦2¹⁹ data cells Pilot patterns Pilot pattern for fixed reception FFT size 16K, 32K points

In this case, the base profile can be used as a profile for both the terrestrial broadcast service and the mobile broadcast service. That is, the base profile can be used to define a concept of a profile which includes the mobile profile. Also, the advanced profile can be divided advanced profile for a base profile with MIMO and advanced profile for a handheld profile with MIMO. Moreover, the three profiles can be changed according to intention of the designer.

The following terms and definitions may apply to the present invention. The following terms and definitions can be changed according to design.

auxiliary stream: sequence of cells carrying data of as yet undefined modulation and coding, which may be used for future extensions or as required by broadcasters or network operators

base data pipe: data pipe that carries service signaling data

baseband frame (or BBFRAME): set of Kbch bits which form the input to one FEC encoding process (BCH and LDPC encoding)

cell: modulation value that is carried by one carrier of the OFDM transmission

coded block: LDPC-encoded block of PLS1 data or one of the LDPC-encoded blocks of PLS2 data

data pipe: logical channel in the physical layer that carries service data or related metadata, which may carry one or multiple service(s) or service component(s).

data pipe unit: a basic unit for allocating data cells to a DP in a frame.

data symbol: OFDM symbol in a frame which is not a preamble symbol (the frame signaling symbol and frame edge symbol is included in the data symbol)

DP_ID: this 8-bit field identifies uniquely a DP within the system identified by the SYSTEM_ID

dummy cell: cell carrying a pseudo-random value used to fill the remaining capacity not used for PLS signaling, DPs or auxiliary streams

emergency alert channel: part of a frame that carries EAS information data

frame: physical layer time slot that starts with a preamble and ends with a frame edge symbol

frame repetition unit: a set of frames belonging to same or different physical layer profile including a FEF, which is repeated eight times in a super-frame

fast information channel: a logical channel in a frame that carries the mapping information between a service and the corresponding base DP

FECBLOCK: set of LDPC-encoded bits of a DP data

FFT size: nominal FFT size used for a particular mode, equal to the active symbol period Ts expressed in cycles of the elementary period T

frame signaling symbol: OFDM symbol with higher pilot density used at the start of a frame in certain combinations of FFT size, guard interval and scattered pilot pattern, which carries a part of the PLS data

frame edge symbol: OFDM symbol with higher pilot density used at the end of a frame in certain combinations of FFT size, guard interval and scattered pilot pattern

frame-group: the set of all the frames having the same PHY profile type in a super-frame.

future extension frame: physical layer time slot within the super-frame that could be used for future extension, which starts with a preamble

Futurecast UTB system: proposed physical layer broadcasting system, of which the input is one or more MPEG2-TS or IP or general stream(s) and of which the output is an RF signal

input stream: A stream of data for an ensemble of services delivered to the end users by the system.

normal data symbol: data symbol excluding the frame signaling symbol and the frame edge symbol

PHY profile: subset of all configurations that a corresponding receiver should implement

PLS: physical layer signaling data consisting of PLS1 and PLS2

PLS1: a first set of PLS data carried in the FSS symbols having a fixed size, coding and modulation, which carries basic information about the system as well as the parameters needed to decode the PLS2

NOTE: PLS1 data remains constant for the duration of a frame-group.

PLS2: a second set of PLS data transmitted in the FSS symbol, which carries more detailed PLS data about the system and the DPs

PLS2 dynamic data: PLS2 data that may dynamically change frame-by-frame

PLS2 static data: PLS2 data that remains static for the duration of a frame-group

preamble signaling data: signaling data carried by the preamble symbol and used to identify the basic mode of the system

preamble symbol: fixed-length pilot symbol that carries basic PLS data and is located in the beginning of a frame

NOTE: The preamble symbol is mainly used for fast initial band scan to detect the system signal, its timing, frequency offset, and FFT-size.

reserved for future use: not defined by the present document but may be defined in future

super-frame: set of eight frame repetition units

time interleaving block (TI block): set of cells within which time interleaving is carried out, corresponding to one use of the time interleaver memory

TI group: unit over which dynamic capacity allocation for a particular DP is carried out, made up of an integer, dynamically varying number of XFECBLOCKs

NOTE: The TI group may be mapped directly to one frame or may be mapped to multiple frames. It may contain one or more TI blocks.

Type 1 DP: DP of a frame where all DPs are mapped into the frame in TDM fashion

Type 2 DP: DP of a frame where all DPs are mapped into the frame in FDM fashion

XFECBLOCK: set of Ncells cells carrying all the bits of one LDPC FECBLOCK

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention can include an input formatting block 1000, a BICM (Bit interleaved coding & modulation) block 1010, a frame structure block 1020, an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) generation block 1030 and a signaling generation block 1040. A description will be given of the operation of each module of the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals.

IP stream/packets and MPEG2-TS are the main input formats, other stream types are handled as General Streams. In addition to these data inputs, Management Information is input to control the scheduling and allocation of the corresponding bandwidth for each input stream. One or multiple TS stream(s), IP stream(s) and/or General Stream(s) inputs are simultaneously allowed.

The input formatting block 1000 can demultiplex each input stream into one or multiple data pipe(s), to each of which an independent coding and modulation is applied. The data pipe (DP) is the basic unit for robustness control, thereby affecting quality-of-service (QoS). One or multiple service(s) or service component(s) can be carried by a single DP. Details of operations of the input formatting block 1000 will be described later.

The data pipe is a logical channel in the physical layer that carries service data or related metadata, which may carry one or multiple service(s) or service component(s).

Also, the data pipe unit: a basic unit for allocating data cells to a DP in a frame.

In the BICM block 1010, parity data is added for error correction and the encoded bit streams are mapped to complex-value constellation symbols. The symbols are interleaved across a specific interleaving depth that is used for the corresponding DP. For the advanced profile, MIMO encoding is performed in the BICM block 1010 and the additional data path is added at the output for MIMO transmission. Details of operations of the BICM block 1010 will be described later.

The Frame Building block 1020 can map the data cells of the input DPs into the OFDM symbols within a frame. After mapping, the frequency interleaving is used for frequency-domain diversity, especially to combat frequency-selective fading channels. Details of operations of the Frame Building block 1020 will be described later.

After inserting a preamble at the beginning of each frame, the OFDM Generation block 1030 can apply conventional OFDM modulation having a cyclic prefix as guard interval. For antenna space diversity, a distributed MISO scheme is applied across the transmitters. In addition, a Peak-to-Average Power Reduction (PAPR) scheme is performed in the time domain. For flexible network planning, this proposal provides a set of various FFT sizes, guard interval lengths and corresponding pilot patterns. Details of operations of the OFDM Generation block 1030 will be described later.

The Signaling Generation block 1040 can create physical layer signaling information used for the operation of each functional block. This signaling information is also transmitted so that the services of interest are properly recovered at the receiver side. Details of operations of the Signaling Generation block 1040 will be described later.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 illustrate the input formatting block 1000 according to embodiments of the present invention. A description will be given of each figure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an input formatting block according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an input formatting module when the input signal is a single input stream.

The input formatting block illustrated in FIG. 2 corresponds to an embodiment of the input formatting block 1000 described with reference to FIG. 1.

The input to the physical layer may be composed of one or multiple data streams. Each data stream is carried by one DP. The mode adaptation modules slice the incoming data stream into data fields of the baseband frame (BBF). The system supports three types of input data streams: MPEG2-TS, Internet protocol (IP) and Generic stream (GS). MPEG2-TS is characterized by fixed length (188 byte) packets with the first byte being a sync-byte (0x47). An IP stream is composed of variable length IP datagram packets, as signaled within IP packet headers. The system supports both IPv4 and IPv6 for the IP stream. GS may be composed of variable length packets or constant length packets, signaled within encapsulation packet headers.

(a) shows a mode adaptation block 2000 and a stream adaptation 2010 for signal DP and (b) shows a PLS generation block 2020 and a PLS scrambler 2030 for generating and processing PLS data. A description will be given of the operation of each block.

The Input Stream Splitter splits the input TS, IP, GS streams into multiple service or service component (audio, video, etc.) streams. The mode adaptation module 2010 is comprised of a CRC Encoder, BB (baseband) Frame Slicer, and BB Frame Header Insertion block.

The CRC Encoder provides three kinds of CRC encoding for error detection at the user packet (UP) level, i.e., CRC-8, CRC-16, and CRC-32. The computed CRC bytes are appended after the UP. CRC-8 is used for TS stream and CRC-32 for IP stream. If the GS stream doesn't provide the CRC encoding, the proposed CRC encoding should be applied.

BB Frame Slicer maps the input into an internal logical-bit format. The first received bit is defined to be the MSB. The BB Frame Slicer allocates a number of input bits equal to the available data field capacity. To allocate a number of input bits equal to the BBF payload, the UP packet stream is sliced to fit the data field of BBF.

BB Frame Header Insertion block can insert fixed length BBF header of 2 bytes is inserted in front of the BB Frame. The BBF header is composed of STUFFI (1 bit), SYNCD (13 bits), and RFU (2 bits). In addition to the fixed 2-Byte BBF header, BBF can have an extension field (1 or 3 bytes) at the end of the 2-byte BBF header.

The stream adaptation 2010 is comprised of stuffing insertion block and BB scrambler.

The stuffing insertion block can insert stuffing field into a payload of a BB frame. If the input data to the stream adaptation is sufficient to fill a BB-Frame, STUFFI is set to ‘0’ and the BBF has no stuffing field. Otherwise STUFFI is set to ‘1’ and the stuffing field is inserted immediately after the BBF header. The stuffing field comprises two bytes of the stuffing field header and a variable size of stuffing data.

The BB scrambler scrambles complete BBF for energy dispersal. The scrambling sequence is synchronous with the BBF. The scrambling sequence is generated by the feed-back shift register.

The PLS generation block 2020 can generate physical layer signaling (PLS) data. The PLS provides the receiver with a means to access physical layer DPs. The PLS data consists of PLS1 data and PLS2 data.

The PLS1 data is a first set of PLS data carried in the FSS symbols in the frame having a fixed size, coding and modulation, which carries basic information about the system as well as the parameters needed to decode the PLS2 data. The PLS1 data provides basic transmission parameters including parameters required to enable the reception and decoding of the PLS2 data. Also, the PLS1 data remains constant for the duration of a frame-group.

The PLS2 data is a second set of PLS data transmitted in the FSS symbol, which carries more detailed PLS data about the system and the DPs. The PLS2 contains parameters that provide sufficient information for the receiver to decode the desired DP. The PLS2 signaling further consists of two types of parameters, PLS2 Static data (PLS2-STAT data) and PLS2 dynamic data (PLS2-DYN data). The PLS2 Static data is PLS2 data that remains static for the duration of a frame-group and the PLS2 dynamic data is PLS2 data that may dynamically change frame-by-frame.

Details of the PLS data will be described later.

The PLS scrambler 2030 can scramble the generated PLS data for energy dispersal.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks having similar or identical functions.

FIG. 3 illustrates an input formatting block according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The input formatting block illustrated in FIG. 3 corresponds to an embodiment of the input formatting block 1000 described with reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a mode adaptation block of the input formatting block when the input signal corresponds to multiple input streams.

The mode adaptation block of the input formatting block for processing the multiple input streams can independently process the multiple input streams.

Referring to FIG. 3, the mode adaptation block for respectively processing the multiple input streams can include an input stream splitter 3000, an input stream synchronizer 3010, a compensating delay block 3020, a null packet deletion block 3030, a head compression block 3040, a CRC encoder 3050, a BB frame slicer 3060 and a BB header insertion block 3070. Description will be given of each block of the mode adaptation block.

Operations of the CRC encoder 3050, BB frame slicer 3060 and BB header insertion block 3070 correspond to those of the CRC encoder, BB frame slicer and BB header insertion block described with reference to FIG. 2 and thus description thereof is omitted.

The input stream splitter 3000 can split the input TS, IP, GS streams into multiple service or service component (audio, video, etc.) streams.

The input stream synchronizer 3010 may be referred as ISSY. The ISSY can provide suitable means to guarantee Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and constant end-to-end transmission delay for any input data format. The ISSY is always used for the case of multiple DPs carrying TS, and optionally used for multiple DPs carrying GS streams.

The compensating delay block 3020 can delay the split TS packet stream following the insertion of ISSY information to allow a TS packet recombining mechanism without requiring additional memory in the receiver.

The null packet deletion block 3030, is used only for the TS input stream case. Some TS input streams or split TS streams may have a large number of null-packets present in order to accommodate VBR (variable bit-rate) services in a CBR TS stream. In this case, in order to avoid unnecessary transmission overhead, null-packets can be identified and not transmitted. In the receiver, removed null-packets can be re-inserted in the exact place where they were originally by reference to a deleted null-packet (DNP) counter that is inserted in the transmission, thus guaranteeing constant bit-rate and avoiding the need for time-stamp (PCR) updating.

The head compression block 3040 can provide packet header compression to increase transmission efficiency for TS or IP input streams. Because the receiver can have a priori information on certain parts of the header, this known information can be deleted in the transmitter.

For Transport Stream, the receiver has a-priori information about the sync-byte configuration (0x47) and the packet length (188 Byte). If the input TS stream carries content that has only one PID, i.e., for only one service component (video, audio, etc.) or service sub-component (SVC base layer, SVC enhancement layer, MVC base view or MVC dependent views), TS packet header compression can be applied (optionally) to the Transport Stream. IP packet header compression is used optionally if the input steam is an IP stream.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks having similar or identical functions.

FIG. 4 illustrates an input formatting block according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The input formatting block illustrated in FIG. 4 corresponds to an embodiment of the input formatting block 1000 described with reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates a stream adaptation block of the input formatting module when the input signal corresponds to multiple input streams.

Referring to FIG. 4, the mode adaptation block for respectively processing the multiple input streams can include a scheduler 4000, an 1-Frame delay block 4010, a stuffing insertion block 4020, an in-band signaling 4030, a BB Frame scrambler 4040, a PLS generation block 4050 and a PLS scrambler 4060. Description will be given of each block of the stream adaptation block.

Operations of the stuffing insertion block 4020, the BB Frame scrambler 4040, the PLS generation block 4050 and the PLS scrambler 4060 correspond to those of the stuffing insertion block, BB scrambler, PLS generation block and the PLS scrambler described with reference to FIG. 2 and thus description thereof is omitted.

The scheduler 4000 can determine the overall cell allocation across the entire frame from the amount of FECBLOCKs of each DP. Including the allocation for PLS, EAC and FIC, the scheduler generate the values of PLS2-DYN data, which is transmitted as in-band signaling or PLS cell in FSS of the frame. Details of FECBLOCK, EAC and FIC will be described later.

The 1-Frame delay block 4010 can delay the input data by one transmission frame such that scheduling information about the next frame can be transmitted through the current frame for in-band signaling information to be inserted into the DPs.

The in-band signaling 4030 can insert un-delayed part of the PLS2 data into a DP of a frame.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks having similar or identical functions.

FIG. 5 illustrates a BICM block according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The BICM block illustrated in FIG. 5 corresponds to an embodiment of the BICM block 1010 described with reference to FIG. 1.

As described above, the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention can provide a terrestrial broadcast service, mobile broadcast service, UHDTV service, etc.

Since QoS (quality of service) depends on characteristics of a service provided by the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention, data corresponding to respective services needs to be processed through different schemes. Accordingly, the a BICM block according to an embodiment of the present invention can independently process DPs input thereto by independently applying SISO, MISO and MIMO schemes to the data pipes respectively corresponding to data paths. Consequently, the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention can control QoS for each service or service component transmitted through each DP.

(a) shows the BICM block shared by the base profile and the handheld profile and (b) shows the BICM block of the advanced profile.

The BICM block shared by the base profile and the handheld profile and the BICM block of the advanced profile can include plural processing blocks for processing each DP.

A description will be given of each processing block of the BICM block for the base profile and the handheld profile and the BICM block for the advanced profile.

A processing block 5000 of the BICM block for the base profile and the handheld profile can include a Data FEC encoder 5010, a bit interleaver 5020, a constellation mapper 5030, an SSD (Signal Space Diversity) encoding block 5040 and a time interleaver 5050.

The Data FEC encoder 5010 can perform the FEC encoding on the input BBF to generate FECBLOCK procedure using outer coding (BCH), and inner coding (LDPC). The outer coding (BCH) is optional coding method. Details of operations of the Data FEC encoder 5010 will be described later.

The bit interleaver 5020 can interleave outputs of the Data FEC encoder 5010 to achieve optimized performance with combination of the LDPC codes and modulation scheme while providing an efficiently implementable structure. Details of operations of the bit interleaver 5020 will be described later.

The constellation mapper 5030 can modulate each cell word from the bit interleaver 5020 in the base and the handheld profiles, or cell word from the Cell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 in the advanced profile using either QPSK, QAM-16, non-uniform QAM (NUQ-64, NUQ-256, NUQ-1024) or non-uniform constellation (NUC-16, NUC-64, NUC-256, NUC-1024) to give a power-normalized constellation point, el. This constellation mapping is applied only for DPs. Observe that QAM-16 and NUQs are square shaped, while NUCs have arbitrary shape. When each constellation is rotated by any multiple of 90 degrees, the rotated constellation exactly overlaps with its original one. This “rotation-sense” symmetric property makes the capacities and the average powers of the real and imaginary components equal to each other. Both NUQs and NUCs are defined specifically for each code rate and the particular one used is signaled by the parameter DP_MOD filed in PLS2 data.

The SSD encoding block 5040 can precode cells in two (2D), three (3D), and four (4D) dimensions to increase the reception robustness under difficult fading conditions.

The time interleaver 5050 can operates at the DP level. The parameters of time interleaving (TI) may be set differently for each DP. Details of operations of the time interleaver 5050 will be described later.

A processing block 5000-1 of the BICM block for the advanced profile can include the Data FEC encoder, bit interleaver, constellation mapper, and time interleaver. However, the processing block 5000-1 is distinguished from the processing block 5000 further includes a cell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 and a MIMO encoding block 5020-1.

Also, the operations of the Data FEC encoder, bit interleaver, constellation mapper, and time interleaver in the processing block 5000-1 correspond to those of the Data FEC encoder 5010, bit interleaver 5020, constellation mapper 5030, and time interleaver 5050 described and thus description thereof is omitted.

The cell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 is used for the DP of the advanced profile to divide the single cell-word stream into dual cell-word streams for MIMO processing. Details of operations of the cell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 will be described later.

The MIMO encoding block 5020-1 can processing the output of the cell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 using MIMO encoding scheme. The MIMO encoding scheme was optimized for broadcasting signal transmission. The MIMO technology is a promising way to get a capacity increase but it depends on channel characteristics. Especially for broadcasting, the strong LOS component of the channel or a difference in the received signal power between two antennas caused by different signal propagation characteristics makes it difficult to get capacity gain from MIMO. The proposed MIMO encoding scheme overcomes this problem using a rotation-based pre-coding and phase randomization of one of the MIMO output signals.

MIMO encoding is intended for a 2×2 MIMO system requiring at least two antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver. Two MIMO encoding modes are defined in this proposal; full-rate spatial multiplexing (FR-SM) and full-rate full-diversity spatial multiplexing (FRFD-SM). The FR-SM encoding provides capacity increase with relatively small complexity increase at the receiver side while the FRFD-SM encoding provides capacity increase and additional diversity gain with a great complexity increase at the receiver side. The proposed MIMO encoding scheme has no restriction on the antenna polarity configuration.

MIMO processing is required for the advanced profile frame, which means all DPs in the advanced profile frame are processed by the MIMO encoder. MIMO processing is applied at DP level. Pairs of the Constellation Mapper outputs NUQ (e1,i and e2,i) are fed to the input of the MIMO Encoder. Paired MIMO Encoder output (g1,i and g2,i) is transmitted by the same carrier k and OFDM symbol 1 of their respective TX antennas.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks having similar or identical functions.

FIG. 6 illustrates a BICM block according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The BICM block illustrated in FIG. 6 corresponds to an embodiment of the BICM block 1010 described with reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 illustrates a BICM block for protection of physical layer signaling (PLS), emergency alert channel (EAC) and fast information channel (FIC). EAC is a part of a frame that carries EAS information data and FIC is a logical channel in a frame that carries the mapping information between a service and the corresponding base DP. Details of the EAC and FIC will be described later.

Referring to FIG. 6, the BICM block for protection of PLS, EAC and FIC can include a PLS FEC encoder 6000, a bit interleaver 6010 and a constellation mapper 6020.

Also, the PLS FEC encoder 6000 can include a scrambler, BCH encoding/zero insertion block, LDPC encoding block and LDPC parity punturing block. Description will be given of each block of the BICM block.

The PLS FEC encoder 6000 can encode the scrambled PLS 1/2 data, EAC and FIC section.

The scrambler can scramble PLS1 data and PLS2 data before BCH encoding and shortened and punctured LDPC encoding.

The BCH encoding/zero insertion block can perform outer encoding on the scrambled PLS 1/2 data using the shortened BCH code for PLS protection and insert zero bits after the BCH encoding. For PLS1 data only, the output bits of the zero insertion may be permutted before LDPC encoding.

The LDPC encoding block can encode the output of the BCH encoding/zero insertion block using LDPC code. To generate a complete coded block, Cldpc, parity bits, Pldpc are encoded systematically from each zero-inserted PLS information block, Ildpc and appended after it.

C _(ldpc) =[I _(ldpc) P _(ldpc) ]=[i ₀ ,i ₁ , . . . , i _(K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹ ,p ₀ ,p ₁ , . . . , p _(N) _(ldpc) _(−K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹]  [Math figure 1]

The LDPC code parameters for PLS1 and PLS2 are as following table 4.

TABLE 4 Signaling N_(bch)_ K_(ldpc) code Type K_(sig) K_(bch) _(parity) (=N_(bch)) N_(ldpc) N_(ldpc)_parity rate Q_(ldpc) PLS1 342 1020 1080 4320 3240 1/4 36 PLS2 <1021 60 >1020 2100 2160 7200 5040 3/10 56

The LDPC parity punturing block can perform puncturing on the PLS1 data and PLS2 data.

When shortening is applied to the PLS1 data protection, some LDPC parity bits are punctured after LDPC encoding. Also, for the PLS2 data protection, the LDPC parity bits of PLS2 are punctured after LDPC encoding. These punctured bits are not transmitted.

The bit interleaver 6010 can interleave the each shortened and punctured PLS1 data and PLS2 data.

The constellation mapper 6020 can map the bit ineterlaeved PLS1 data and PLS2 data onto constellations.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks having similar or identical functions.

FIG. 7 illustrates a frame building block according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The frame building block illustrated in FIG. 7 corresponds to an embodiment of the frame building block 1020 described with reference to FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 7, the frame building block can include a delay compensation block 7000, a cell mapper 7010 and a frequency interleaver 7020. Description will be given of each block of the frame building block.

The delay compensation block 7000 can adjust the timing between the data pipes and the corresponding PLS data to ensure that they are co-timed at the transmitter end. The PLS data is delayed by the same amount as data pipes are by addressing the delays of data pipes caused by the Input Formatting block and BICM block. The delay of the BICM block is mainly due to the time interleaver 5050. In-band signaling data carries information of the next TI group so that they are carried one frame ahead of the DPs to be signaled. The Delay Compensating block delays in-band signaling data accordingly.

The cell mapper 7010 can map PLS, EAC, FIC, DPs, auxiliary streams and dummy cells into the active carriers of the OFDM symbols in the frame. The basic function of the cell mapper 7010 is to map data cells produced by the TIs for each of the DPs, PLS cells, and EAC/FIC cells, if any, into arrays of active OFDM cells corresponding to each of the OFDM symbols within a frame. Service signaling data (such as PSI (program specific information)/SI) can be separately gathered and sent by a data pipe. The Cell Mapper operates according to the dynamic information produced by the scheduler and the configuration of the frame structure. Details of the frame will be described later.

The frequency interleaver 7020 can randomly interleave data cells received from the cell mapper 7010 to provide frequency diversity. Also, the frequency interleaver 7020 can operate on very OFDM symbol pair comprised of two sequential OFDM symbols using a different interleaving-seed order to get maximum interleaving gain in a single frame.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks having similar or identical functions.

FIG. 8 illustrates an OFDM generation block according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The OFDM generation block illustrated in FIG. 8 corresponds to an embodiment of the OFDM generation block 1030 described with reference to FIG. 1.

The OFDM generation block modulates the OFDM carriers by the cells produced by the Frame Building block, inserts the pilots, and produces the time domain signal for transmission. Also, this block subsequently inserts guard intervals, and applies PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Radio) reduction processing to produce the final RF signal.

Referring to FIG. 8, the frame building block can include a pilot and reserved tone insertion block 8000, a 2D-eSFN encoding block 8010, an IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) block 8020, a PAPR reduction block 8030, a guard interval insertion block 8040, a preamble insertion block 8050, other system insertion block 8060 and a DAC block 8070. Description will be given of each block of the frame building block.

The pilot and reserved tone insertion block 8000 can insert pilots and the reserved tone.

Various cells within the OFDM symbol are modulated with reference information, known as pilots, which have transmitted values known a priori in the receiver. The information of pilot cells is made up of scattered pilots, continual pilots, edge pilots, FSS (frame signaling symbol) pilots and FES (frame edge symbol) pilots. Each pilot is transmitted at a particular boosted power level according to pilot type and pilot pattern. The value of the pilot information is derived from a reference sequence, which is a series of values, one for each transmitted carrier on any given symbol. The pilots can be used for frame synchronization, frequency synchronization, time synchronization, channel estimation, and transmission mode identification, and also can be used to follow the phase noise.

Reference information, taken from the reference sequence, is transmitted in scattered pilot cells in every symbol except the preamble, FSS and FES of the frame. Continual pilots are inserted in every symbol of the frame. The number and location of continual pilots depends on both the FFT size and the scattered pilot pattern. The edge carriers are edge pilots in every symbol except for the preamble symbol. They are inserted in order to allow frequency interpolation up to the edge of the spectrum. FSS pilots are inserted in FSS(s) and FES pilots are inserted in FES. They are inserted in order to allow time interpolation up to the edge of the frame.

The system according to an embodiment of the present invention supports the SFN network, where distributed MISO scheme is optionally used to support very robust transmission mode. The 2D-eSFN is a distributed MISO scheme that uses multiple TX antennas, each of which is located in the different transmitter site in the SFN network.

The 2D-eSFN encoding block 8010 can process a 2D-eSFN processing to distorts the phase of the signals transmitted from multiple transmitters, in order to create both time and frequency diversity in the SFN configuration. Hence, burst errors due to low flat fading or deep-fading for a long time can be mitigated.

The IFFT block 8020 can modulate the output from the 2D-eSFN encoding block 8010 using OFDM modulation scheme. Any cell in the data symbols which has not been designated as a pilot (or as a reserved tone) carries one of the data cells from the frequency interleaver. The cells are mapped to OFDM carriers.

The PAPR reduction block 8030 can perform a PAPR reduction on input signal using various PAPR reduction algorithm in the time domain.

The guard interval insertion block 8040 can insert guard intervals and the preamble insertion block 8050 can insert preamble in front of the signal. Details of a structure of the preamble will be described later. The other system insertion block 8060 can multiplex signals of a plurality of broadcast transmission/reception systems in the time domain such that data of two or more different broadcast transmission/reception systems providing broadcast services can be simultaneously transmitted in the same RF signal bandwidth. In this case, the two or more different broadcast transmission/reception systems refer to systems providing different broadcast services. The different broadcast services may refer to a terrestrial broadcast service, mobile broadcast service, etc. Data related to respective broadcast services can be transmitted through different frames.

The DAC block 8070 can convert an input digital signal into an analog signal and output the analog signal. The signal output from the DAC block 7800 can be transmitted through multiple output antennas according to the physical layer profiles. A Tx antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention can have vertical or horizontal polarity.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks having similar or identical functions according to design.

FIG. 9 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The apparatus for receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention can correspond to the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcast services, described with reference to FIG. 1.

The apparatus for receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention can include a synchronization & demodulation module 9000, a frame parsing module 9010, a demapping & decoding module 9020, an output processor 9030 and a signaling decoding module 9040. A description will be given of operation of each module of the apparatus for receiving broadcast signals.

The synchronization & demodulation module 9000 can receive input signals through m Rx antennas, perform signal detection and synchronization with respect to a system corresponding to the apparatus for receiving broadcast signals and carry out demodulation corresponding to a reverse procedure of the procedure performed by the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals.

The frame parsing module 9100 can parse input signal frames and extract data through which a service selected by a user is transmitted. If the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals performs interleaving, the frame parsing module 9100 can carry out deinterleaving corresponding to a reverse procedure of interleaving. In this case, the positions of a signal and data that need to be extracted can be obtained by decoding data output from the signaling decoding module 9400 to restore scheduling information generated by the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals.

The demapping & decoding module 9200 can convert the input signals into bit domain data and then deinterleave the same as necessary. The demapping & decoding module 9200 can perform demapping for mapping applied for transmission efficiency and correct an error generated on a transmission channel through decoding. In this case, the demapping & decoding module 9200 can obtain transmission parameters necessary for demapping and decoding by decoding the data output from the signaling decoding module 9400.

The output processor 9300 can perform reverse procedures of various compression/signal processing procedures which are applied by the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals to improve transmission efficiency. In this case, the output processor 9300 can acquire necessary control information from data output from the signaling decoding module 9400. The output of the output processor 8300 corresponds to a signal input to the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals and may be MPEG-TSs, IP streams (v4 or v6) and generic streams.

The signaling decoding module 9400 can obtain PLS information from the signal demodulated by the synchronization & demodulation module 9000. As described above, the frame parsing module 9100, demapping & decoding module 9200 and output processor 9300 can execute functions thereof using the data output from the signaling decoding module 9400.

FIG. 10 illustrates a frame structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows an example configuration of the frame types and FRUs in a super-frame. (a) shows a super frame according to an embodiment of the present invention, (b) shows FRU (Frame Repetition Unit) according to an embodiment of the present invention, (c) shows frames of variable PHY profiles in the FRU and (d) shows a structure of a frame.

A super-frame may be composed of eight FRUs. The FRU is a basic multiplexing unit for TDM of the frames, and is repeated eight times in a super-frame.

Each frame in the FRU belongs to one of the PHY profiles, (base, handheld, advanced) or FEF. The maximum allowed number of the frames in the FRU is four and a given PHY profile can appear any number of times from zero times to four times in the FRU (e.g., base, base, handheld, advanced). PHY profile definitions can be extended using reserved values of the PHY_PROFILE in the preamble, if required.

The FEF part is inserted at the end of the FRU, if included. When the FEF is included in the FRU, the minimum number of FEFs is 8 in a super-frame. It is not recommended that FEF parts be adjacent to each other.

One frame is further divided into a number of OFDM symbols and a preamble. As shown in (d), the frame comprises a preamble, one or more frame signaling symbols (FSS), normal data symbols and a frame edge symbol (FES).

The preamble is a special symbol that enables fast Futurecast UTB system signal detection and provides a set of basic transmission parameters for efficient transmission and reception of the signal. The detailed description of the preamble will be will be described later.

The main purpose of the FSS(s) is to carry the PLS data. For fast synchronization and channel estimation, and hence fast decoding of PLS data, the FSS has more dense pilot pattern than the normal data symbol. The FES has exactly the same pilots as the FSS, which enables frequency-only interpolation within the FES and temporal interpolation, without extrapolation, for symbols immediately preceding the FES.

FIG. 11 illustrates a signaling hierarchy structure of the frame according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates the signaling hierarchy structure, which is split into three main parts: the preamble signaling data 11000, the PLS1 data 11010 and the PLS2 data 11020. The purpose of the preamble, which is carried by the preamble symbol in every frame, is to indicate the transmission type and basic transmission parameters of that frame. The PLS1 enables the receiver to access and decode the PLS2 data, which contains the parameters to access the DP of interest. The PLS2 is carried in every frame and split into two main parts: PLS2-STAT data and PLS2-DYN data. The static and dynamic portion of PLS2 data is followed by padding, if necessary.

FIG. 12 illustrates preamble signaling data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Preamble signaling data carries 21 bits of information that are needed to enable the receiver to access PLS data and trace DPs within the frame structure. Details of the preamble signaling data are as follows:

PHY_PROFILE: This 3-bit field indicates the PHY profile type of the current frame. The mapping of different PHY profile types is given in below table 5.

TABLE 5 Value PHY profile 000 Base profile 001 Handheld profile 010 Advanced profiled 011~110 Reserved 111 FEF

FFT_SIZE: This 2 bit field indicates the FFT size of the current frame within a frame-group, as described in below table 6.

TABLE 6 Value FFT size 00 8K FFT 01 16K FFT 10 32K FFT 11 Reserved

GI_FRACTION: This 3 bit field indicates the guard interval fraction value in the current super-frame, as described in below table 7.

TABLE 7 Value GI_FRACTION 000 ⅕  001 1/10 010 1/20 011 1/40 100 1/80 101   1/160 110~111 Reserved

EAC_FLAG: This 1 bit field indicates whether the EAC is provided in the current frame. If this field is set to ‘1’, emergency alert service (EAS) is provided in the current frame. If this field set to ‘0’, EAS is not carried in the current frame. This field can be switched dynamically within a super-frame.

PILOT_MODE: This 1-bit field indicates whether the pilot mode is mobile mode or fixed mode for the current frame in the current frame-group. If this field is set to ‘0’, mobile pilot mode is used. If the field is set to ‘1’, the fixed pilot mode is used.

PAPR_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether PAPR reduction is used for the current frame in the current frame-group. If this field is set to value ‘1’, tone reservation is used for PAPR reduction. If this field is set to ‘0’, PAPR reduction is not used.

FRU_CONFIGURE: This 3-bit field indicates the PHY profile type configurations of the frame repetition units (FRU) that are present in the current super-frame. All profile types conveyed in the current super-frame are identified in this field in all preambles in the current super-frame. The 3-bit field has a different definition for each profile, as show in below table 8.

TABLE 8 Current Current Current PHY_PROFILE = PHY_PROFILE = Current PHY_PROFILE = ‘001’ ‘010’ PHY_PROFILE = ‘000’ (base) (handheld) (advanced) ‘111’ (FEF) FRU_CONFIGURE = Only base Only handheld Only advanced Only FEF 000 profile profile present profile present present present FRU_CONFIGURE = Handheld Base profile Base profile Base profile 1XX profile present present present present FRU_CONFIGURE = Advanced Advanced Handheld Handheld X1X profile profile profile profile present present present present FRU_CONFIGURE = FEF FEF FEF Advanced XX1 present present present profile present

RESERVED: This 7-bit field is reserved for future use.

FIG. 13 illustrates PLS1 data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

PLS1 data provides basic transmission parameters including parameters required to enable the reception and decoding of the PLS2. As above mentioned, the PLS1 data remain unchanged for the entire duration of one frame-group. The detailed definition of the signaling fields of the PLS1 data are as follows:

PREAMBLE_DATA: This 20-bit field is a copy of the preamble signaling data excluding the EAC_FLAG.

NUM_FRAME_FRU: This 2-bit field indicates the number of the frames per FRU.

PAYLOAD_TYPE: This 3-bit field indicates the format of the payload data carried in the frame-group. PAYLOAD_TYPE is signaled as shown in table 9.

TABLE 9 value Payload type 1XX TS stream is transmitted X1X IP stream is transmitted XX1 GS stream is transmitted

NUM_FSS: This 2-bit field indicates the number of FSS symbols in the current frame.

SYSTEM_VERSION: This 8-bit field indicates the version of the transmitted signal format. The SYSTEM_VERSION is divided into two 4-bit fields, which are a major version and a minor version.

Major version: The MSB four bits of SYSTEM_VERSION field indicate major version information. A change in the major version field indicates a non-backward-compatible change. The default value is ‘0000’. For the version described in this standard, the value is set to ‘0000’.

Minor version: The LSB four bits of SYSTEM_VERSION field indicate minor version information. A change in the minor version field is backward-compatible.

CELL_ID: This is a 16-bit field which uniquely identifies a geographic cell in an ATSC network. An ATSC cell coverage area may consist of one or more frequencies, depending on the number of frequencies used per Futurecast UTB system. If the value of the CELL_ID is not known or unspecified, this field is set to ‘0’.

NETWORK_ID: This is a 16-bit field which uniquely identifies the current ATSC network.

SYSTEM_ID: This 16-bit field uniquely identifies the Futurecast UTB system within the ATSC network. The Futurecast UTB system is the terrestrial broadcast system whose input is one or more input streams (TS, IP, GS) and whose output is an RF signal. The Futurecast UTB system carries one or more PHY profiles and FEF, if any. The same Futurecast UTB system may carry different input streams and use different RF frequencies in different geographical areas, allowing local service insertion. The frame structure and scheduling is controlled in one place and is identical for all transmissions within a Futurecast UTB system. One or more Futurecast UTB systems may have the same SYSTEM_ID meaning that they all have the same physical layer structure and configuration.

The following loop consists of FRU_PHY_PROFILE, FRU_FRAME_LENGTH, FRU_GI_FRACTION, and RESERVED which are used to indicate the FRU configuration and the length of each frame type. The loop size is fixed so that four PHY profiles (including a FEF) are signaled within the FRU. If NUM_FRAME_FRU is less than 4, the unused fields are filled with zeros.

FRU_PHY_PROFILE: This 3-bit field indicates the PHY profile type of the (i+1)th (i is the loop index) frame of the associated FRU. This field uses the same signaling format as shown in the table 8.

FRU_FRAME_LENGTH: This 2-bit field indicates the length of the (i+1)th frame of the associated FRU. Using FRU_FRAME_LENGTH together with FRU_GI_FRACTION, the exact value of the frame duration can be obtained.

FRU_GI_FRACTION: This 3-bit field indicates the guard interval fraction value of the (i+1)th frame of the associated FRU. FRU_GI_FRACTION is signaled according to the table 7.

RESERVED: This 4-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following fields provide parameters for decoding the PLS2 data.

PLS2FEC_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the FEC type used by the PLS2 protection. The FEC type is signaled according to table 10. The details of the LDPC codes will be described later.

TABLE 10 Content PLS2 FEC type 00 4K-¼ and 7K- 3/10 LDPC codes 01~11 Reserved

PLS2_MOD: This 3-bit field indicates the modulation type used by the PLS2. The modulation type is signaled according to table 11.

TABLE 11 Value PLS2_MODE 000 BPSK 001 QPSK 010 QAM-16 011 NUQ-64 100~111 Reserved

PLS2_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates Ctotal_partial_block, the size (specified as the number of QAM cells) of the collection of full coded blocks for PLS2 that is carried in the current frame-group. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_STAT_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, in bits, of the PLS2-STAT for the current frame-group. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_DYN_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, in bits, of the PLS2-DYN for the current frame-group. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_REP_FLAG: This 1-bit flag indicates whether the PLS2 repetition mode is used in the current frame-group. When this field is set to value ‘1’, the PLS2 repetition mode is activated. When this field is set to value ‘0’, the PLS2 repetition mode is deactivated.

PLS2_REP_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates Ctotal_partial_block, the size (specified as the number of QAM cells) of the collection of partial coded blocks for PLS2 carried in every frame of the current frame-group, when PLS2 repetition is used. If repetition is not used, the value of this field is equal to 0. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_FEC_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the FEC type used for PLS2 that is carried in every frame of the next frame-group. The FEC type is signaled according to the table 10.

PLS2_NEXT_MOD: This 3-bit field indicates the modulation type used for PLS2 that is carried in every frame of the next frame-group. The modulation type is signaled according to the table 11.

PLS2_NEXT_REP_FLAG: This 1-bit flag indicates whether the PLS2 repetition mode is used in the next frame-group. When this field is set to value ‘1’, the PLS2 repetition mode is activated. When this field is set to value ‘0’, the PLS2 repetition mode is deactivated.

PLS2 NEXT_REP SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates Ctotal_full_block, The size (specified as the number of QAM cells) of the collection of full coded blocks for PLS2 that is carried in every frame of the next frame-group, when PLS2 repetition is used. If repetition is not used in the next frame-group, the value of this field is equal to 0. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_REP_STAT_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, in bits, of the PLS2-STAT for the next frame-group. This value is constant in the current frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_REP_DYN_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, in bits, of the PLS2-DYN for the next frame-group. This value is constant in the current frame-group.

PLS2_AP_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether additional parity is provided for PLS2 in the current frame-group. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group. The below table 12 gives the values of this field. When this field is set to ‘00’, additional parity is not used for the PLS2 in the current frame-group.

TABLE 12 Value PLS2-AP mode 00 AP is not provided 01 AP1 mode 10~11 Reserved

PLS2_AP_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates the size (specified as the number of QAM cells) of the additional parity bits of the PLS2. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_AP_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether additional parity is provided for PLS2 signaling in every frame of next frame-group. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group. The table 12 defines the values of this field

PLS2_NEXT_AP_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates the size (specified as the number of QAM cells) of the additional parity bits of the PLS2 in every frame of the next frame-group. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

RESERVED: This 32-bit field is reserved for future use.

CRC_(—)32: A 32-bit error detection code, which is applied to the entire PLS1 signaling.

FIG. 14 illustrates PLS2 data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 illustrates PLS2-STAT data of the PLS2 data. The PLS2-STAT data are the same within a frame-group, while the PLS2-DYN data provide information that is specific for the current frame.

The details of fields of the PLS2-STAT data are as follows:

FIC_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether the FIC is used in the current frame-group. If this field is set to ‘1’, the FIC is provided in the current frame. If this field set to ‘0’, the FIC is not carried in the current frame. This value is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

AUX_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether the auxiliary stream(s) is used in the current frame-group. If this field is set to ‘1’, the auxiliary stream is provided in the current frame. If this field set to ‘0’, the auxiliary stream is not carried in the current frame. This value is constant during the entire duration of current frame-group.

NUM_DP: This 6-bit field indicates the number of DPs carried within the current frame. The value of this field ranges from 1 to 64, and the number of DPs is NUM_DP+1.

DP_ID: This 6-bit field identifies uniquely a DP within a PHY profile.

DP_TYPE: This 3-bit field indicates the type of the DP. This is signaled according to the below table 13.

TABLE 13 Value DP Type 000 DP Type 1 001 DP Type 2 010~111 reserved

DP_GROUP_ID: This 8-bit field identifies the DP group with which the current DP is associated. This can be used by a receiver to access the DPs of the service components associated with a particular service, which will have the same DP_GROUP_ID.

BASE_DP_ID: This 6-bit field indicates the DP carrying service signaling data (such as PSI/SI) used in the Management layer. The DP indicated by BASE_DP_ID may be either a normal DP carrying the service signaling data along with the service data or a dedicated DP carrying only the service signaling data

DP_FEC_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the FEC type used by the associated DP. The FEC type is signaled according to the below table 14.

TABLE 14 Value FEC_TYPE 00 16K LDPC 01 64K LDPC 10~11 Reserved

DP_COD: This 4-bit field indicates the code rate used by the associated DP. The code rate is signaled according to the below table 15.

TABLE 15 Value Code rate 0000 5/15 0001 6/15 0010 7/15 0011 8/15 0100 9/15 0101 10/15  0110 11/15  0111 12/15  1000 13/15  1001~1111 Reserved

DP_MOD: This 4-bit field indicates the modulation used by the associated DP. The modulation is signaled according to the below table 16.

TABLE 16 Value Modulation 0000 QPSK 0001 QAM-16 0010 NUQ-64 0011 NUQ-256 0100 NUQ-1024 0101 NUC-16 0110 NUC-64 0111 NUC-256 1000 NUC-1024 1001~1111 reserved

DP_SSD_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether the SSD mode is used in the associated DP. If this field is set to value ‘1’, SSD is used. If this field is set to value ‘0’, SSD is not used.

The following field appears only if PHY_PROFILE is equal to ‘010’, which indicates the advanced profile:

DP_MIMO: This 3-bit field indicates which type of MIMO encoding process is applied to the associated DP. The type of MIMO encoding process is signaled according to the table 17.

TABLE 17 Value MIMO encoding 000 FR-SM 001 FRFD-SM 010~111 reserved

DP_TI_TYPE: This 1-bit field indicates the type of time-interleaving. A value of ‘0’ indicates that one TI group corresponds to one frame and contains one or more TI-blocks. A value of ‘1’ indicates that one TI group is carried in more than one frame and contains only one TI-block.

DP_TI_LENGTH: The use of this 2-bit field (the allowed values are only 1, 2, 4, 8) is determined by the values set within the DP_TI_TYPE field as follows:

If the DP_TI_TYPE is set to the value ‘1’, this field indicates PI, the number of the frames to which each TI group is mapped, and there is one TI-block per TI group (NTI=1). The allowed PI values with 2-bit field are defined in the below table 18.

If the DP_TI_TYPE is set to the value ‘0’, this field indicates the number of TI-blocks NTI per TI group, and there is one TI group per frame (PI=1). The allowed PI values with 2-bit field are defined in the below table 18.

TABLE 18 2-bit field P_(I) N_(TI) 00 1 1 01 2 2 10 4 3 11 8 4

DP_FRAME_INTERVAL: This 2-bit field indicates the frame interval (BUMP) within the frame-group for the associated DP and the allowed values are 1, 2, 4, 8 (the corresponding 2-bit field is ‘00’, ‘01’, ‘10’, or ‘11’, respectively). For DPs that do not appear every frame of the frame-group, the value of this field is equal to the interval between successive frames. For example, if a DP appears on the frames 1, 5, 9, 13, etc., this field is set to ‘4’. For DPs that appear in every frame, this field is set to ‘1’.

DP_TI_BYPASS: This 1-bit field determines the availability of time interleaver 5050. If time interleaving is not used for a DP, it is set to ‘1’. Whereas if time interleaving is used it is set to ‘0’.

DP_FIRST_FRAME_DX: This 5-bit field indicates the index of the first frame of the super-frame in which the current DP occurs. The value of DP_FIRST_FRAME_DX ranges from 0 to 31

DP_NUM_BLOCK_MAX: This 10-bit field indicates the maximum value of DPNUM_BLOCKS for this DP. The value of this field has the same range as DP_NUM_BLOCKS.

DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the type of the payload data carried by the given DP. DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is signaled according to the below table 19.

TABLE 19 Value Payload Type 00 TS. 01 IP 10 GS 11 reserved

DP_INBAND_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether the current DP carries in-band signaling information. The in-band signaling type is signaled according to the below table 20.

TABLE 20 Value In-band mode 00 In-band signaling is not carried. 01 INBAND-PLS is carried only 10 INBAND-ISSY is carried only 11 INBAND-PLS and INBAND-ISSY are carried

DP_PROTOCOL_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the protocol type of the payload carried by the given DP. It is signaled according to the below table 21 when input payload types are selected.

TABLE 21 If DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE If DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE If DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE Value Is TS Is IP Is GS 00 MPEG2-TS IPv4 (Note) 01 Reserved IPv6 Reserved 10 Reserved Reserved Reserved 11 Reserved Reserved Reserved

DP_CRC_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether CRC encoding is used in the Input Formatting block. The CRC mode is signaled according to the below table 22.

TABLE 22 Value CRC mode 00 Not used 01 CRC-8 10 CRC-16 11 CRC-32

DNP_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates the null-packet deletion mode used by the associated DP when DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to TS (‘00’). DNP_MODE is signaled according to the below table 23. If DP_(—) PAYLOAD_(—) is not TS (‘00’), DNP_MODE is set to the value ‘00’.

TABLE 23 Value Null-packet deletion mode 00 Not used 01 DNP-NORMAL 10 DNP-OFFSET 11 reserved

ISSY_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates the ISSY mode used by the associated DP when DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to TS (‘00’). The ISSY_MODE is signaled according to the below table 24 If DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is not TS (‘00’), ISSY_MODE is set to the value ‘00’.

TABLE 24 Value ISSY mode 00 Not used 01 ISSY-UP 10 ISSY-BBF 11 reserved

HC_MODE_TS: This 2-bit field indicates the TS header compression mode used by the associated DP when DP_(—) PAYLOAD_(—) is set to TS (‘00’). The HC_MODE_TS is signaled according to the below table 25.

TABLE 25 Value Header compression mode 00 HC_MODE_TS 1 01 HC_MODE_TS 2 10 HC_MODE_TS 3 11 HC_MODE_TS 4 HC_MODE_IP: This 2-bit field indicates the IP header compression mode when DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to IP (‘01’). The HC_MODE_IP is signaled according to the below table 26.

TABLE 26 Value Header compression mode 00 No compression 01 HC_MODE_IP 1 10~11 reserved

PID: This 13-bit field indicates the PID number for TS header compression when DP_(—) PAYLOAD_ is set to TS (‘00’) and HC_MODE_TS is set to ‘01’ or ‘10’.

RESERVED: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following field appears only if FIC_FLAG is equal to ‘1’:

FIC_VERSION: This 8-bit field indicates the version number of the FIC.

FIC_LENGTH_BYTE: This 13-bit field indicates the length, in bytes, of the FIC.

RESERVED: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following field appears only if AUX_FLAG is equal to ‘1’:

NUM_AUX: This 4-bit field indicates the number of auxiliary streams. Zero means no auxiliary streams are used.

AUX_CONFIG_RFU: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

AUX_STREAM_TYPE: This 4-bit is reserved for future use for indicating the type of the current auxiliary stream.

AUX_PRIVATE_CONFIG: This 28-bit field is reserved for future use for signaling auxiliary streams.

FIG. 15 illustrates PLS2 data according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 illustrates PLS2-DYN data of the PLS2 data. The values of the PLS2-DYN data may change during the duration of one frame-group, while the size of fields remains constant.

The details of fields of the PLS2-DYN data are as follows:

FRAME_INDEX: This 5-bit field indicates the frame index of the current frame within the super-frame. The index of the first frame of the super-frame is set to ‘0’.

PLS_CHANGE_COUNTER: This 4-bit field indicates the number of super-frames ahead where the configuration will change. The next super-frame with changes in the configuration is indicated by the value signaled within this field. If this field is set to the value ‘0000’, it means that no scheduled change is foreseen: e.g., value ‘1’ indicates that there is a change in the next super-frame.

FIC_CHANGE_COUNTER: This 4-bit field indicates the number of super-frames ahead where the configuration (i.e., the contents of the FIC) will change. The next super-frame with changes in the configuration is indicated by the value signaled within this field. If this field is set to the value ‘0000’, it means that no scheduled change is foreseen: e.g. value ‘0001’ indicates that there is a change in the next super-frame.

RESERVED: This 16-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following fields appear in the loop over NUM_DP, which describe the parameters associated with the DP carried in the current frame.

DP_ID: This 6-bit field indicates uniquely the DP within a PHY profile.

DP_START: This 15-bit (or 13-bit) field indicates the start position of the first of the DPs using the DPU addressing scheme. The DP_START field has differing length according to the PHY profile and FFT size as shown in the below table 27.

TABLE 27 DP_START field size PHY profile 64K 16K Base 13 bit 15 bit Handheld — 13 bit Advanced 13 bit 15 bit

DP_NUM_BLOCK: This 10-bit field indicates the number of FEC blocks in the current TI group for the current DP. The value of DP_NUM_BLOCK ranges from 0 to 1023

RESERVED: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following fields indicate the FIC parameters associated with the EAC.

EAC_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates the existence of the EAC in the current frame. This bit is the same value as the EAC_FLAG in the preamble.

EAS_WAKE_UP_VERSION_NUM: This 8-bit field indicates the version number of a wake-up indication.

If the EAC_FLAG field is equal to ‘1’, the following 12 bits are allocated for EAC_LENGTH_BYTE field. If the EAC_FLAG field is equal to ‘0’, the following 12 bits are allocated for EAC_COUNTER.

EAC_LENGTH_BYTE: This 12-bit field indicates the length, in byte, of the EAC.

EAC_COUNTER: This 12-bit field indicates the number of the frames before the frame where the EAC arrives.

The following field appears only if the AUX_FLAG field is equal to ‘1’:

AUX_PRIVATE_DYN: This 48-bit field is reserved for future use for signaling auxiliary streams. The meaning of this field depends on the value of AUX_STREAM_TYPE in the configurable PLS2-STAT.

CRC_(—)32: A 32-bit error detection code, which is applied to the entire PLS2.

FIG. 16 illustrates a logical structure of a frame according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As above mentioned, the PLS, EAC, FIC, DPs, auxiliary streams and dummy cells are mapped into the active carriers of the OFDM symbols in the frame. The PLS1 and PLS2 are first mapped into one or more FSS(s). After that, EAC cells, if any, are mapped immediately following the PLS field, followed next by FIC cells, if any. The DPs are mapped next after the PLS or EAC, FIC, if any. Type 1 DPs follows first, and Type 2 DPs next. The details of a type of the DP will be described later. In some case, DPs may carry some special data for EAS or service signaling data. The auxiliary stream or streams, if any, follow the DPs, which in turn are followed by dummy cells. Mapping them all together in the above mentioned order, i.e. PLS, EAC, FIC, DPs, auxiliary streams and dummy data cells exactly fill the cell capacity in the frame.

FIG. 17 illustrates PLS mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

PLS cells are mapped to the active carriers of FSS(s). Depending on the number of cells occupied by PLS, one or more symbols are designated as FSS(s), and the number of FSS(s) NFSS is signaled by NUM_FSS in PLS1. The FSS is a special symbol for carrying PLS cells. Since robustness and latency are critical issues in the PLS, the FSS(s) has higher density of pilots allowing fast synchronization and frequency-only interpolation within the FSS.

PLS cells are mapped to active carriers of the NFSS FSS(s) in a top-down manner as shown in an example in FIG. 17. The PLS1 cells are mapped first from the first cell of the first FSS in an increasing order of the cell index. The PLS2 cells follow immediately after the last cell of the PLS1 and mapping continues downward until the last cell index of the first FSS. If the total number of required PLS cells exceeds the number of active carriers of one FSS, mapping proceeds to the next FSS and continues in exactly the same manner as the first FSS.

After PLS mapping is completed, DPs are carried next. If EAC, FIC or both are present in the current frame, they are placed between PLS and “normal” DPs.

FIG. 18 illustrates EAC mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

EAC is a dedicated channel for carrying EAS messages and links to the DPs for EAS. EAS support is provided but EAC itself may or may not be present in every frame. EAC, if any, is mapped immediately after the PLS2 cells. EAC is not preceded by any of the FIC, DPs, auxiliary streams or dummy cells other than the PLS cells. The procedure of mapping the EAC cells is exactly the same as that of the PLS.

The EAC cells are mapped from the next cell of the PLS2 in increasing order of the cell index as shown in the example in FIG. 18. Depending on the EAS message size, EAC cells may occupy a few symbols, as shown in FIG. 18.

EAC cells follow immediately after the last cell of the PLS2, and mapping continues downward until the last cell index of the last FSS. If the total number of required EAC cells exceeds the number of remaining active carriers of the last FSS mapping proceeds to the next symbol and continues in exactly the same manner as FSS(s). The next symbol for mapping in this case is the normal data symbol, which has more active carriers than a FSS.

After EAC mapping is completed, the FIC is carried next, if any exists. If FIC is not transmitted (as signaled in the PLS2 field), DPs follow immediately after the last cell of the EAC.

FIG. 19 illustrates FIC mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

shows an example mapping of FIC cell without EAC and (b) shows an example mapping of FIC cell with EAC.

FIC is a dedicated channel for carrying cross-layer information to enable fast service acquisition and channel scanning. This information primarily includes channel binding information between DPs and the services of each broadcaster. For fast scan, a receiver can decode FIC and obtain information such as broadcaster ID, number of services, and BASE_DP_ID. For fast service acquisition, in addition to FIC, base DP can be decoded using BASE_DP_ID. Other than the content it carries, a base DP is encoded and mapped to a frame in exactly the same way as a normal DP. Therefore, no additional description is required for a base DP. The FIC data is generated and consumed in the Management Layer. The content of FIC data is as described in the Management Layer specification.

The FIC data is optional and the use of FIC is signaled by the FIC_FLAG parameter in the static part of the PLS2. If FIC is used, FIC_FLAG is set to ‘1’ and the signaling field for FIC is defined in the static part of PLS2. Signaled in this field are FIC_VERSION, and FIC_LENGTH_BYTE. FIC uses the same modulation, coding and time interleaving parameters as PLS2. FIC shares the same signaling parameters such as PLS2_MOD and PLS2_FEC. FIC data, if any, is mapped immediately after PLS2 or EAC if any. FIC is not preceded by any normal DPs, auxiliary streams or dummy cells. The method of mapping FIC cells is exactly the same as that of EAC which is again the same as PLS.

Without EAC after PLS, FIC cells are mapped from the next cell of the PLS2 in an increasing order of the cell index as shown in an example in (a). Depending on the FIC data size, FIC cells may be mapped over a few symbols, as shown in (b).

FIC cells follow immediately after the last cell of the PLS2, and mapping continues downward until the last cell index of the last FSS. If the total number of required FIC cells exceeds the number of remaining active carriers of the last FSS, mapping proceeds to the next symbol and continues in exactly the same manner as FSS(s). The next symbol for mapping in this case is the normal data symbol which has more active carriers than a FSS.

If EAS messages are transmitted in the current frame, EAC precedes FIC, and FIC cells are mapped from the next cell of the EAC in an increasing order of the cell index as shown in (b).

After FIC mapping is completed, one or more DPs are mapped, followed by auxiliary streams, if any, and dummy cells.

FIG. 20 illustrates a type of DP according to an embodiment of the present invention.

shows type 1 DP and (b) shows type 2 DP.

After the preceding channels, i.e., PLS, EAC and FIC, are mapped, cells of the DPs are mapped. A DP is categorized into one of two types according to mapping method:

Type 1 DP: DP is mapped by TDM

Type 2 DP: DP is mapped by FDM

The type of DP is indicated by DP_TYPE field in the static part of PLS2. FIG. 20 illustrates the mapping orders of Type 1 DPs and Type 2 DPs. Type 1 DPs are first mapped in the increasing order of cell index, and then after reaching the last cell index, the symbol index is increased by one. Within the next symbol, the DP continues to be mapped in the increasing order of cell index starting from p=0. With a number of DPs mapped together in one frame, each of the Type 1 DPs are grouped in time, similar to TDM multiplexing of DPs.

Type 2 DPs are first mapped in the increasing order of symbol index, and then after reaching the last OFDM symbol of the frame, the cell index increases by one and the symbol index rolls back to the first available symbol and then increases from that symbol index. After mapping a number of DPs together in one frame, each of the Type 2 DPs are grouped in frequency together, similar to FDM multiplexing of DPs.

Type 1 DPs and Type 2 DPs can coexist in a frame if needed with one restriction; Type 1 DPs always precede Type 2 DPs. The total number of OFDM cells carrying Type 1 and Type 2 DPs cannot exceed the total number of OFDM cells available for transmission of DPs:

D _(DP1) +D _(DP2) ≦D _(DP)  [Math figure 2]

where DDP1 is the number of OFDM cells occupied by Type 1 DPs, DDP2 is the number of cells occupied by Type 2 DPs. Since PLS, EAC, FIC are all mapped in the same way as Type 1 DP, they all follow “Type 1 mapping rule”. Hence, overall, Type 1 mapping always precedes Type 2 mapping.

FIG. 21 illustrates DP mapping according to an embodiment of the present invention.

shows an addressing of OFDM cells for mapping type 1 DPs and (b) shows an addressing of OFDM cells for mapping for type 2 DPs.

Addressing of OFDM cells for mapping Type 1 DPs (0, . . . , DDP1-1) is defined for the active data cells of Type 1 DPs. The addressing scheme defines the order in which the cells from the TIs for each of the Type 1 DPs are allocated to the active data cells. It is also used to signal the locations of the DPs in the dynamic part of the PLS2.

Without EAC and FIC, address 0 refers to the cell immediately following the last cell carrying PLS in the last FSS. If EAC is transmitted and FIC is not in the corresponding frame, address 0 refers to the cell immediately following the last cell carrying EAC. If FIC is transmitted in the corresponding frame, address 0 refers to the cell immediately following the last cell carrying FIC. Address 0 for Type 1 DPs can be calculated considering two different cases as shown in (a). In the example in (a), PLS, EAC and FIC are assumed to be all transmitted. Extension to the cases where either or both of EAC and FIC are omitted is straightforward. If there are remaining cells in the FSS after mapping all the cells up to FIC as shown on the left side of (a).

Addressing of OFDM cells for mapping Type 2 DPs (0, . . . , DDP2-1) is defined for the active data cells of Type 2 DPs. The addressing scheme defines the order in which the cells from the TIs for each of the Type 2 DPs are allocated to the active data cells. It is also used to signal the locations of the DPs in the dynamic part of the PLS2.

Three slightly different cases are possible as shown in (b). For the first case shown on the left side of (b), cells in the last FSS are available for Type 2 DP mapping. For the second case shown in the middle, FIC occupies cells of a normal symbol, but the number of FIC cells on that symbol is not larger than CFSS. The third case, shown on the right side in (b), is the same as the second case except that the number of FIC cells mapped on that symbol exceeds CFSS.

The extension to the case where Type 1 DP(s) precede Type 2 DP(s) is straightforward since PLS, EAC and FIC follow the same “Type 1 mapping rule” as the Type 1 DP(s).

A data pipe unit (DPU) is a basic unit for allocating data cells to a DP in a frame.

A DPU is defined as a signaling unit for locating DPs in a frame. A Cell Mapper 7010 may map the cells produced by the TIs for each of the DPs. A Time interleaver 5050 outputs a series of TI-blocks and each TI-block comprises a variable number of XFECBLOCKs which is in turn composed of a set of cells. The number of cells in an XFECBLOCK, Ncells, is dependent on the FECBLOCK size, Nldpc, and the number of transmitted bits per constellation symbol. A DPU is defined as the greatest common divisor of all possible values of the number of cells in a XFECBLOCK, Ncells, supported in a given PHY profile. The length of a DPU in cells is defined as LDPU. Since each PHY profile supports different combinations of FECBLOCK size and a different number of bits per constellation symbol, LDPU is defined on a PHY profile basis.

FIG. 22 illustrates an FEC structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 illustrates an FEC structure according to an embodiment of the present invention before bit interleaving. As above mentioned, Data FEC encoder may perform the FEC encoding on the input BBF to generate FECBLOCK procedure using outer coding (BCH), and inner coding (LDPC). The illustrated FEC structure corresponds to the FECBLOCK. Also, the FECBLOCK and the FEC structure have same value corresponding to a length of LDPC codeword.

The BCH encoding is applied to each BBF (Kbch bits), and then LDPC encoding is applied to BCH-encoded BBF (Kldpc bits=Nbch bits) as illustrated in FIG. 22.

The value of Nldpc is either 64800 bits (long FECBLOCK) or 16200 bits (short FECBLOCK).

The below table 28 and table 29 show FEC encoding parameters for a long FECBLOCK and a short FECBLOCK, respectively.

TABLE 28 BCH error LDPC correction Rate N_(ldpc) K_(ldpc) K_(bch) capability N_(bch) − K_(bch) 5/15 64800 21600 21408 12 192 6/15 25920 25728 7/15 30240 30048 8/15 34560 34368 9/15 38880 38688 10/15  43200 43008 11/15  47520 47328 12/15  51840 51648 13/15  56160 55968

TABLE 29 BCH error LDPC correction Rate N_(ldpc) K_(ldpc) K_(bch) capability N_(bch) − K_(bch) 5/15 16200 5400 5232 12 168 6/15 6480 6312 7/15 7560 7392 8/15 8640 8472 9/15 9720 9552 10/15  10800 10632 11/15  11880 11712 12/15  12960 12792 13/15  14040 13872

The details of operations of the BCH encoding and LDPC encoding are as follows:

A 12-error correcting BCH code is used for outer encoding of the BBF. The BCH generator polynomial for short FECBLOCK and long FECBLOCK are obtained by multiplying together all polynomials.

LDPC code is used to encode the output of the outer BCH encoding. To generate a completed Bldpc (FECBLOCK), Pldpc (parity bits) is encoded systematically from each Ildpc (BCH-encoded BBF), and appended to Ildpc. The completed Bldpc (FECBLOCK) are expressed as follow Math figure.

B _(ldpc) =[I _(ldpc) P _(ldpc) ]=[i ₀ ,i ₁ , . . . , i _(K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹ ,p ₀ ,p ₁ , . . . , p _(N) _(ldpc) _(−K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹]  [Math figure 3]

The parameters for long FECBLOCK and short FECBLOCK are given in the above table 28 and 29, respectively.

The detailed procedure to calculate Nldpc−Kldpc parity bits for long FECBLOCK, is as follows:

1) Initialize the parity bits,

p ₀ =p ₁ =p ₂ = . . . =p _(N) _(ldpc) _(−K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹=0  [Math figure 4]

2) Accumulate the first information bit—i0, at parity bit addresses specified in the first row of an addresses of parity check matrix. The details of addresses of parity check matrix will be described later. For example, for rate 13/15:

p ₉₈₃ =p ₉₈₃ ⊕i ₀

p ₂₈₁₅ =p ₂₈₁₅ ⊕i ₀

p ₄₈₃₇ =p ₄₈₃₇ ⊕i ₀

p ₄₉₈₉ =p ₄₉₈₉ ⊕i ₀

p ₆₁₃₈ =p ₆₁₃₈ ⊕i ₀

p ₆₄₅₈ =p ₆₄₅₈ ⊕i ₀

p ₆₉₂₁ =p ₆₉₂₁ ⊕i ₀

p ₆₉₇₄ =p ₆₉₇₄ ⊕i ₀

p ₇₅₇₂ =p ₇₅₇₂ ⊕i ₀

p ₈₂₆₀ =p ₈₂₆₀ ⊕i ₀

p ₈₄₉₆ =p ₈₄₉₆ ⊕i ₀  [Math figure 5]

3) For the next 359 information bits, is, s=1, 2, . . . , 359 accumulate is at parity bit addresses using following Math figure.

{x+(s mod 360)×Q _(ldpc)} mod(N _(ldpc) −K _(ldpc))  [Math figure 6]

where x denotes the address of the parity bit accumulator corresponding to the first bit i0, and Qldpc is a code rate dependent constant specified in the addresses of parity check matrix. Continuing with the example, Qldpc=24 for rate 13/15, so for information bit i1, the following operations are performed:

p ₁₀₀₇ =p ₁₀₀₇ ⊕i ₁

p ₂₈₃₉ =p ₂₈₃₉ ⊕i ₁

p ₄₈₆₁ =p ₄₈₆₁ ⊕i ₁

p ₅₀₁₃ =p ₅₀₁₃ ⊕i ₁

p ₆₁₆₂ =p ₆₁₆₂ ⊕i ₁

p ₆₄₈₂ =p ₆₄₈₂ ⊕i ₁

p ₆₉₄₅ =p ₆₉₄₅ ⊕i ₁

p ₆₉₉₈ =p ₆₉₉₈ ⊕i ₁

p ₇₅₉₆ =p ₇₅₉₆ ⊕i ₁

p ₈₂₈₄ =p ₈₂₈₄ ⊕i ₁

p ₈₅₂₀ =p ₈₅₂₀ ⊕i ₁  [Math figure 7]

4) For the 361st information bit i360, the addresses of the parity bit accumulators are given in the second row of the addresses of parity check matrix. In a similar manner the addresses of the parity bit accumulators for the following 359 information bits is, s=361, 362, . . . , 719 are obtained using the Math figure 6, where x denotes the address of the parity bit accumulator corresponding to the information bit i360, i.e., the entries in the second row of the addresses of parity check matrix.

5) In a similar manner, for every group of 360 new information bits, a new row from addresses of parity check matrixes used to find the addresses of the parity bit accumulators.

After all of the information bits are exhausted, the final parity bits are obtained as follows:

6) Sequentially perform the following operations starting with i=1

p _(i) =p _(i) ⊕p _(i−1) , i=1, 2, . . . , N _(ldpc) −K _(ldpc)−1  [Math figure 8]

where final content of pi, i=0, 1, . . . , Nldpc−Kldpc−1 is equal to the parity bit pi.

TABLE 30 Code Rate Q_(ldpc) 5/15 120 6/15 108 7/15 96 8/15 84 9/15 72 10/15  60 11/15  48 12/15  36 13/15  24

This LDPC encoding procedure for a short FECBLOCK is in accordance with t LDPC encoding procedure for the long FECBLOCK, except replacing the table 30 with table 31, and replacing the addresses of parity check matrix for the long FECBLOCK with the addresses of parity check matrix for the short FECBLOCK.

TABLE 31 Code Rate Q_(ldpc) 5/15 30 6/15 27 7/15 24 8/15 21 9/15 18 10/15  15 11/15  12 12/15  9 13/15  6

FIG. 23 illustrates a bit interleaving according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The outputs of the LDPC encoder are bit-interleaved, which consists of parity interleaving followed by Quasi-Cyclic Block (QCB) interleaving and inner-group interleaving.

shows Quasi-Cyclic Block (QCB) interleaving and (b) shows inner-group interleaving.

The FECBLOCK may be parity interleaved. At the output of the parity interleaving, the LDPC codeword consists of 180 adjacent QC blocks in a long FECBLOCK and 45 adjacent QC blocks in a short FECBLOCK. Each QC block in either a long or short FECBLOCK consists of 360 bits. The parity interleaved LDPC codeword is interleaved by QCB interleaving. The unit of QCB interleaving is a QC block. The QC blocks at the output of parity interleaving are permutated by QCB interleaving as illustrated in FIG. 23, where Ncells=64800/η mod or 16200/η mod according to the FECBLOCK length. The QCB interleaving pattern is unique to each combination of modulation type and LDPC code rate.

After QCB interleaving, inner-group interleaving is performed according to modulation type and order (η mod) which is defined in the below table 32. The number of QC blocks for one inner-group, NQCB_IG, is also defined.

TABLE 32 Modulation type η_(mod) N_(QCB) _(—) _(IG) QAM-16 4 2 NUC-16 4 4 NUQ-64 6 3 NUC-64 6 6 NUQ-256 8 4 NUC-256 8 8 NUQ-1024 10 5 NUC-1024 10 10

The inner-group interleaving process is performed with NQCB_IG QC blocks of the QCB interleaving output. Inner-group interleaving has a process of writing and reading the bits of the inner-group using 360 columns and NQCB_IG rows. In the write operation, the bits from the QCB interleaving output are written row-wise. The read operation is performed column-wise to read out m bits from each row, where m is equal to 1 for NUC and 2 for NUQ.

FIG. 24 illustrates a cell-word demultiplexing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 shows a cell-word demultiplexing for 8 and 12 bpcu MIMO and (b) shows a cell-word demultiplexing for 10 bpcu MIMO.

Each cell word (c0,1, c1,1, cη mod-1,1) of the bit interleaving output is demultiplexed into (d1,0,m, d1,1,m . . . , d1,η mod-1,m) and (d2,0,m, d2,1,m . . . , d2,η mod-1,m) as shown in (a), which describes the cell-word demultiplexing process for one XFECBLOCK.

For the 10 bpcu MIMO case using different types of NUQ for MIMO encoding, the Bit Interleaver for NUQ-1024 is re-used. Each cell word (c0,1, c1,1, c9,1) of the Bit Interleaver output is demultiplexed into (d1,0,m, d1,1,m . . . , d1,3,m) and (d2,0,m, d2,1,m . . . , d2,5,m), as shown in (b).

FIG. 25 illustrates a time interleaving according to an embodiment of the present invention.

to (c) show examples of TI mode.

The time interleaver operates at the DP level. The parameters of time interleaving (TI) may be set differently for each DP.

The following parameters, which appear in part of the PLS2-STAT data, configure the TI:

DP_TI_TYPE (allowed values: 0 or 1): Represents the TI mode; ‘0’ indicates the mode with multiple TI blocks (more than one TI block) per TI group. In this case, one TI group is directly mapped to one frame (no inter-frame interleaving). ‘1’ indicates the mode with only one TI block per TI group. In this case, the TI block may be spread over more than one frame (inter-frame interleaving).

DP_TI_LENGTH: If DP_TI_TYPE=‘0’, this parameter is the number of TI blocks NTI per TI group. For DP_TI_TYPE=‘1’, this parameter is the number of frames PI spread from one TI group.

DPNUM_BLOCK_MAX (allowed values: 0 to 1023): Represents the maximum number of XFECBLOCKs per TI group.

DP_FRAME_INTERVAL (allowed values: 1, 2, 4, 8): Represents the number of the frames BUMP between two successive frames carrying the same DP of a given PHY profile.

DP_TI_BYPASS (allowed values: 0 or 1): If time interleaving is not used for a DP, this parameter is set to ‘1’. It is set to ‘0’ if time interleaving is used.

Additionally, the parameter DP_NUM_BLOCK from the PLS2-DYN data is used to represent the number of XFECBLOCKs carried by one TI group of the DP.

When time interleaving is not used for a DP, the following TI group, time interleaving operation, and TI mode are not considered. However, the Delay Compensation block for the dynamic configuration information from the scheduler will still be required. In each DP, the XFECBLOCKs received from the SSD/MIMO encoding are grouped into TI groups. That is, each TI group is a set of an integer number of XFECBLOCKs and will contain a dynamically variable number of XFECBLOCKs. The number of XFECBLOCKs in the TI group of index n is denoted by NxBLOCK_Group(n) and is signaled as DP_NUM_BLOCK in the PLS2-DYN data. Note that NxBLOCK_Group(n) may vary from the minimum value of 0 to the maximum value NxBLOCK_Group_MAX (corresponding to DPNUM_BLOCK_MAX) of which the largest value is 1023.

Each TI group is either mapped directly onto one frame or spread over PI frames. Each TI group is also divided into more than one TI blocks (NTI), where each TI block corresponds to one usage of time interleaver memory. The TI blocks within the TI group may contain slightly different numbers of XFECBLOCKs. If the TI group is divided into multiple TI blocks, it is directly mapped to only one frame. There are three options for time interleaving (except the extra option of skipping the time interleaving) as shown in the below table 33.

TABLE 33 Modes Descriptions Option-1 Each TI group contains one TI block and is mapped directly to one frame as shown in (a). This option is signaled in the PLS2-STAT by DP_TI_TYPE = ‘0’ and DP_TI_LENGTH = ‘1’(N_(TI) = 1). Option-2 Each TI group contains one TI block and is mapped to more than one frame. (b) shows an example, where one TI group is mapped to two frames, i.e., DP_TI_LENGTH = ‘2’ (P_(I) = 2) and DP_FRAME_INTERVAL (I_(JUMP) = 2). This provides greater time diversity for low data-rate services. This option is signaled in the PLS2- STAT by DP_TI_TYPE = ‘1’. Option-3 Each TI group is divided into multiple TI blocks and is mapped directly to one frame as shown in (c). Each TI block may use full TI memory, so as to provide the maximum bit-rate for a DP. This option is signaled in the PLS2-STAT signaling by DP_TI_TYPE = ‘0’ and DP_TI_LENGTH = N_(TI), while P_(I) = 1.

In each DP, the TI memory stores the input XFECBLOCKs (output XFECBLOCKs from the SSD/MIMO encoding block). Assume that input XFECBLOCKs are defined as

(d _(n,s,0,0) ,d _(n,s,0,1) , . . . , d _(n,s,0,N) _(cells) ⁻¹ ,d _(n,s,1,0) , . . . , d _(n,s,1,N) _(cells) ⁻¹ , . . . , d _(n,s,N) _(xBLOCK—TI) _((n,s)−1,0) , . . . , d _(n,s,N) _(xBLOCK—TI) _((n,s)−1,N) _(cells) ⁻¹),

where d_(n,s,r,q) is the qth cell of the rth XFECBLOCK in the sth TI block of the nth TI group and represents the outputs of SSD and MIMO encodings as follows

$d_{n,s,r,q} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix} {f_{n,s,r,q},} & {{the}\mspace{14mu} {output}\mspace{14mu} {of}\mspace{14mu} {SSD}\mspace{14mu} \ldots \mspace{14mu} {encoding}} \\ {g_{n,s,r,q},} & {{the}\mspace{14mu} {output}\mspace{14mu} {of}\mspace{14mu} {MIMO}\mspace{14mu} {encoding}} \end{matrix}.} \right.$

In addition, assume that output XFECBLOCKs from the time interleaver 5050 are defined as

(h _(n,s,0) ,h _(n,s,1) , . . . , h _(n,s,i) , . . . , h _(n,s,N) _(xBLOCK—) _(TI)(n,s)×N _(cells)−1)

where h_(n,s,i) is the ith output cell (for i=0, . . . , N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(n,s)×N_(cells)−1) in the sth TI block of the nth TI group.

Typically, the time interleaver will also act as a buffer for DP data prior to the process of frame building. This is achieved by means of two memory banks for each DP. The first TI-block is written to the first bank. The second TI-block is written to the second bank while the first bank is being read from and so on.

The TI is a twisted row-column block interleaver. For the sth TI block of the nth TI group, the number of rows N_(r) of a TI memory is equal to the number of cells N_(cells) i.e., N_(r)=N_(cells) while the number of columns N_(c) is equal to the number N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(n,s).

FIG. 26 illustrates the basic operation of a twisted row-column block interleaver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 (a) shows a writing operation in the time interleaver and FIG. 26( b) shows a reading operation in the time interleaver The first XFECBLOCK is written column-wise into the first column of the TI memory, and the second XFECBLOCK is written into the next column, and so on as shown in (a). Then, in the interleaving array, cells are read out diagonal-wise. During diagonal-wise reading from the first row (rightwards along the row beginning with the left-most column) to the last row, N_(r) cells are read out as shown in (b). In detail, assuming z_(n,s,i)(i=0, . . . , N_(r),N_(c)) as the TI memory cell position to be read sequentially, the reading process in such an interleaving array is performed by calculating the row index R_(n,s,i) the column index C_(n,s,i), and the associated twisting parameter T_(n,s,i) as follows expression.

$\begin{matrix} {{{GENERATE}\left( {R_{n,s,i},C_{n,s,i}} \right)} = \left\{ {{R_{n,s,i} = {{mod}\left( {i,N_{r}} \right)}},{T_{n,s,i} = {{mod}\left( {{S_{shift} \times R_{n,s,i}},N_{c}} \right)}},{C_{n,s,i} = {{mod}\left( {{T_{n,s,i} + \left\lfloor \frac{i}{N_{r}} \right\rfloor},N_{c}} \right)}}} \right\}} & \left\lbrack {{Math}\mspace{14mu} {Figure}\mspace{14mu} 9} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

where S_(shift) is a common shift value for the diagonal-wise reading process regardless of N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(n,s), and it is determined by N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI) _(—) _(MAX) given in the PLS2-STAT as follows expression.

$\begin{matrix} {{for}\mspace{14mu} \left\{ {\begin{matrix} {{N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}}^{\prime} = {N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}} + 1}},} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}}{mod}\; 2} = 0} \\ {{N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}}^{\prime} = N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}}},} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}}{mod}\; 2} = 1} \end{matrix},\mspace{20mu} {S_{shift} = \frac{N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}}^{\prime} - 1}{2}}} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Math}\mspace{14mu} {Figure}\mspace{14mu} 10} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

As a result, the cell positions to be read are calculated by a coordinate as z_(n,s,i)=N_(r)C_(n,s,i)+R_(n,s,i).

FIG. 27 illustrates an operation of a twisted row-column block interleaver according to another embodiment of the present invention.

More specifically, FIG. 27 illustrates the interleaving array in the TI memory for each TI group, including virtual XFECBLOCKs when N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(0,0)=3, N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(1,0)=6, N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(2,0)=5.

The variable number N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(n,s)=N_(r) will be less than or equal to N′N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI) _(—) _(MAX). Thus, in order to achieve a single-memory deinterleaving at the receiver side, regardless of N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(n,s), the interleaving array for use in a twisted row-column block interleaver is set to the size of N_(r)×N_(c)=N_(cells)×N′_(xBLOCK) _(—TI) _(—) _(MAX) by inserting the virtual XFECBLOCKs into the TI memory and the reading process is accomplished as follow expression.

$\begin{matrix} {{{{p = 0};}{{{{for}\mspace{14mu} i} = 0};{i < {N_{cells}N_{{xBLOCK\_ TI}{\_ MAX}}^{\prime}}};{i = {i + 1}}}}\left\{ {{{GENERATE}\mspace{11mu} \left( {R_{n,s,i},C_{n,s,i}} \right)};{V_{i} = {{{N_{r}C_{n,s,j}} + {R_{n,s,j}\mspace{31mu} {if}\mspace{14mu} V_{i}}} < {N_{cells}{N_{xBLOCK\_ TI}\left( {n,s} \right)}\mspace{31mu} \left\{ \mspace{31mu} {{Z_{n,s,p} = V_{i}};{p = {p + 1}};}\mspace{31mu} \right\}}}}} \right\}} & \left\lbrack {{Math}\mspace{14mu} {Figure}\mspace{14mu} 11} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

The number of TI groups is set to 3. The option of time interleaver is signaled in the PLS2-STAT data by DP_TI_TYPE=‘0’, DP_FRAME_INTERVAL=‘1’, and DP_TI_LENGTH=‘1’, i.e., NTI=1, IJUMP=1, and PI=1. The number of XFECBLOCKs, each of which has Ncells=30 cells, per TI group is signaled in the PLS2-DYN data by NxBLOCK_TI(0,0)=3, NxBLOCK_TI(1,0)=6, and NxBLOCK_TI(2,0)=5, respectively. The maximum number of XFECBLOCK is signaled in the PLS2-STAT data by NxBLOCK_Group_MAX, which leads to └N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(Group) _(—) _(MAX)/N_(TI)┘=N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI) _(—) _(MAX)=6.

FIG. 28 illustrates a diagonal-wise reading pattern of a twisted row-column block interleaver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

More specifically FIG. 28 shows a diagonal-wise reading pattern from each interleaving array with parameters of N′_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI) _(—) _(MAX)=7 and Sshift=(7−1)/2=3. Note that in the reading process shown as pseudocode above, if V_(i)≧N_(cells)N_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI)(n,s), the value of Vi is skipped and the next calculated value of Vi is used.

FIG. 29 illustrates interlaved XFECBLOCKs from each interleaving array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 illustrates the interleaved XFECBLOCKs from each interleaving array with parameters of N′_(xBLOCK) _(—) _(TI) _(—) _(MAX)=7 and Sshift=3.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the input formatting module 1000 according to the present embodiment may include a mode adaptation module 2000 and a stream adaptation module 2010.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the mode adaptation module 2000 may include a CRC encoder block, a BB frame slicer block, and a BB header insertion block. A specific operation of each block is the same as the above description.

Hereinafter, a specific operation of the mode adaptation module 2000 performed when an input stream is input to the input formatting module 1000 will be described.

The mode adaptation module 2000 according to the present embodiment may split and output input streams based on performance of coding and modulation or based on a service and service component. The mode adaptation module 2000 may transmit each data stream split for each service or service component to the stream adaptation module 2010 through a plurality of data pipes (DPs).

A stream that may be input to the mode adaptation module 2000 according to the present embodiment may include an IP stream. The IP stream may include IP datagram packets having various sizes. An IP datagram packet may include an IP packet header.

In general, a maximum transmission unit (MTU) of an IP packet transmitted through an Ethernet network may be set to 1500 bytes. As a size of a broadcast signal for a next generation broadcast service increases, the size may exceed the MTU of the IP packet. In this case, to transmit the broadcast signal in the form of an IP packet through the Ethernet network, a broadcaster or a server may split and transmit the broadcast signal based on the size of the MTU (1500 bytes) of the IP packet. The size of the split IP packet may be less than or equal to the size of the MTU. When one broadcast signal is split into a plurality of IP packets, pieces of information included in headers of the respective IP packets may overlap and be transmitted.

When a plurality of IP packets transmitted through the Ethernet network are input, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may compress headers of the IP packets for efficient transmission. When the plurality of IP packets are input, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may extend the MTU to merge the plurality of IP packets, thereby generating one IP packet. Therefore, since the plurality of IP packet headers are reconfigured as one merged IP packet header, overhead of the IP packets may be reduced.

The broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may transmit an MTU value of each of the plurality of input IP packets so that the broadcast signal reception apparatus may restore the plurality of IP packets input to the broadcast signal transmission apparatus.

FIG. 30 illustrates a mode adaptation module of the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30( a) illustrates the mode adaptation module which is applicable when an input stream is an IP stream.

FIG. 30( b) an IP repacking module 16000 of the mode adaptation module which is applicable when the input stream is an IP stream.

The mode adaptation module according to another embodiment of the present invention may demultiplex one or a plurality of input IP streams based on a service or service component transmitted through DPs.

Hereinafter, the mode adaptation module of the input formatting module will be described.

(a) As described in the foregoing, the input formatting module 1000 of the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may receive one or more IP streams (v4/v6).

The mode adaptation module 2000 of the input formatting module 1000 described with reference to FIG. 3 may include a pre-processing module, the IP repacking module 16000, an input interface module, a header compression module 16030, and a BB-frame header insertion module. Hereinafter, description will be focused on an operation of each module. Operations of the BB-frame header insertion module and the input interface module are similar to the operations described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and thus will not be further described.

The pre-processing module may split the plurality of IP streams input to the broadcast signal transmission apparatus into service data or service component (video, audio, or the like) data, and output the split data. The service data or service component data split by the pre-processing module may be input to the IP repacking module 16000 for each DP. The pre-processing module according to the present embodiment may operate similarly to the input stream splitter 3000 described with reference to FIG. 3.

The input interface block according to the present embodiment may split and output a single input stream in a unit of a BB frame length for future performance of FEC (BCH/LDPC). An operation of the input interface block according to the present embodiment may be performed by the pre-processing module or the input stream splitter 3000.

Hereinafter, an operation of the IP repacking module 16000 will be described in detail.

(b) The IP repacking module 16000 may include a consequence packet check module 16010 and a packet merging module 16020.

The consequence packet check module 16010 may receive service data or service component data and an MTU extension value from the pre-processing module for each DP. The MTU extension value received by the consequence packet check module 16010 may be 8000 bytes or 16000 bytes. The above-described MTU extension value is merely an example, and may be changed to an appropriate value by a designer.

The consequence packet check module 16010 may determine whether the service data or service component data input to the consequence packet check module 16010 corresponds to a consequence packet. Consequence packets refer to two or more IP packets for transmitting the same service or the same service component. The consequence packet is generated when a broadcaster transmits data having a large capacity (for example, HDTV or UDTV class video component data) in a form of an IP packet through the Ethernet network).

A specific example of generating the consequence packet and a specific scheme of determining whether input service data or service component data is the consequence packet by a consequence packet module will be described below. A packet including an IP header among consequence packets may be referred to as a consequence IP packet. The consequence IP packet which is input to the input formatting module 1000 according to the present embodiment may be referred to as a fragmented IP packet.

The packet merging module 16020 may merge IP packet payloads of IP packets determined to be consequence packets by the consequence packet check module 16010. The consequence packet check module 16010 may determine a size of the merged IP packet payload based on an input MTU extension value.

The header compression module 16030 according to another embodiment of the present invention may compress packet headers included in an input stream to enhance transmission efficiency. The header compression module 16030 may compress the headers by eliminating the same IP packet headers overlapping at a transmitting end to prevent a receiver from repeatedly receiving a known-type signal (an IP packet header in the present embodiment). Alternatively, the header compression module 16030 may compress the headers by reconfiguring consequence IP packet headers as one IP packet header. A scheme of reconfiguring the IP packet headers will be described below.

An MTU extension value output from the pre-processing module and input to the consequence packet check module 16010 and information about an MTU (original MTU mode) output from the pre-processing module and used during transmission through the Ethernet network may be input to the BB-frame header insertion module or a signaling generation module.

The MTU (original MTU mode) information output from the pre-processing module and used during transmission through the Ethernet network may be included in a BB-frame header or signaling information and transmitted. The original MTU mode information may be used when a reception apparatus restores an IP packet or restores and retransmits the IP packet.

The signaling information may include information that indicates whether the header compression module 16030 performs packet header compression.

An operation of the IP repacking module 16000 may be performed in the header compression module 16030.

FIG. 31 illustrates an example of splitting an IP packet when the IP packet is transmitted through the Ethernet network.

FIG. 31( a) illustrates an IP packet including an ultra definition (UD) I-frame 17000 generated in the broadcaster. Here, the UD I-frame 17000 has a data size of 2000 bytes. The IP packet may include an IP packet header 17030 and the UD I-frame 17000.

As illustrated in this figure, the IP packet header 17030 may include an IP header (which is indicated by IP in the figure), a user datagram protocol (UDP) header (which is indicated by UDP in the figure) and a real time protocol (RTP) header (which is indicated by RTP in the figure). The IP header may include IP address information. The IP address information is information for identifying devices on a computer network. The UDP header may include port number information. The port number information refers to a number for identifying a virtual and logical communication connecting end which is used in a UDP protocol. The RTP header may include time stamp information. The time stamp information refers to information that indicates a time relation between packets.

FIG. 31( b) illustrates an example in which an IP packet including the UD I-frame (2000 bytes) is split into two IP packets when the IP packet is transmitted through the Ethernet network and the MTU is limited to 1500 bytes.

Here, the two IP packets illustrated in FIG. 31( b) are generated from the IP packet including the UD I-frame through splitting, and may be referred to as consequence packets.

IP packet headers 17040 and 17050 of the two consequence packets include the same IP address information, port number information and time stamp information. IP packet payloads 17010 and 17050 of the two consequence packets have sizes of 1448 bytes and 512 bytes, respectively. Alternatively, the IP packet payloads 17010 and 17050 of the two consequence packets may have sizes of 1448 bytes and 552 bytes, respectively. In this case, a sum of the IP packet payloads of the consequence packets may be the same as a size of data (2000 bytes) included in the UD I-frame.

In IPv4, an IP packet header may have a variable size. Thus, when a size of an IP packet header of each IP packet varies in a process in which the IP packet is split into consequence packets, a check sum value may vary.

FIGS. 32( a) and (b) illustrate IP packets input to the input formatting module 1000, and FIG. 32( c) illustrates an IP packet output through an IP repacking scheme performed by the input formatting module 1000 according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The IP packet illustrated in FIG. 32( a) includes an IP packet header 18001 and an IP packet payload 18011 (1448 bytes).

The IP packet illustrated in FIG. 32( b) includes an IP packet header 18002 and an IP packet payload 18012 (512 bytes).

The IP packet illustrated in FIG. 32( c) includes an IP packet header 18003 and an IP packet payload 18020 (2000 bytes). The IP packet illustrated in FIG. 32( c) may be output through the IP repacking scheme performed by an IP repacking module according to another embodiment of the present invention with respect to the IP packets of FIGS. 32( a) and (b).

The IP repacking module may merge IP packet payloads 18010 to output a merged IP packet payload 18020.

The header compression module 16030 may output the IP packet header 18003 generated by reconfiguring IP packet headers 18000. Specific operations of the IP repacking module and the header compression module 16030 may be the same as the description with reference to FIG. 30.

FIG. 33 illustrates a flowchart describing an IP repacking scheme according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the IP repacking scheme performed by the IP repacking module of the input formatting module 1000 will be described.

The IP repacking module separates IP packet headers of input IP packets. The IP repacking module may compare IP address information, port number information and time stamp information of one of the two separated IP packet headers with those of the other. The IP repacking module may merge the two IP packets when the two IP packets are determined to be split from the same UD I-frame by comparing information included in one of the two IP packet headers with information included in the other.

The pre-processing module may split an IP stream among received input streams based on service data or service component data for each DP. The IP repacking module may separate an IP packet header from the service data or service component data split for each DP in S19000. The IP repacking module may verify whether IP packets are consequence packets by comparing an IP packet header separated for the first time with an IP packet header separated for the second time in S19010. The IP repacking module may determine whether the IP packets are consequence packets based on information included in the headers of the received IP packets.

The IP repacking module may calculate a sum of sizes (or lengths) and checksum of payloads of the consequence IP packets in S19020. The header compression module may generate an IP packet header of a merged consequence IP packet based on the calculated sum of sizes (or lengths) and checksum of the payloads of the consequence IP packets. The IP packet header of the merged consequence IP packet may be generated by the IP repacking module.

The IP repacking module may merge payloads of two IP packets determined to be consequence IP packets into one IP packet payload in S19030.

The IP repacking module may merge the two consequence IP packets into the one IP packet payload based on a data structure of a UD I-frame corresponding to a form that the IP packet had before being split into the two consequence IP packets. The IP packet header may include information about the data structure of the UD I-frame.

The above description in which the input formatting module 1000 applies the IP repacking scheme to the two consequence IP packets is merely an example, and the IP repacking scheme may be applied to two or more consequence IP packets. In addition, the IP header, the UDP header and the RTP header included in the IP packet header are merely examples, and an interpretation of the invention is not limited thereto. Moreover, a value of the MTU input to the IP repacking module may be changed by a designer.

Hereinafter, enhanced performance resulting from the IP repacking scheme according to the present embodiment will be described.

FIG. 34 illustrates a table for comparing overhead sizes of packet headers according to data lengths when MTUs of each of IPv4 and IPv6 packets to which header compression is not applied are 1500, 8000 and 16000. Each entry in the table is a number of bytes, and the unit is omitted in description below.

When the MTU is 1500, the number of fragmented IP packets (1, 2, 3, . . . ) increases as a data length increases (1000, 2000, 3000, . . . ) in both IPv4 and IPv6. Overhead is proportional to the number of fragmented IP packets. In this instance, IPv6 has greater overhead than IPv4.

When the MTU is 8000 or 16000 and the data length is 1000, IPv4 and IPv6 have overhead values of 48 and 68, respectively, which is the same as those of a case in which the MTU is 1500. However, the overhead values increase as the data length increases in different manners when compared to the case in which the MTU is 1500.

When the MTU is 8000 and the data length is 1000 to 8000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 48 and 68, respectively.

When the MTU is 8000 and the data length is 9000 to 16000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 96 and 136, respectively.

When the MTU is 8000 and the data length is 17000 to 20000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 144 and 204, respectively.

When the MTU is 16000 and the data length is 1000 to 16000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 48 and 68, respectively.

When the MTU is 16000 and the data length is 16000 to 20000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 96 and 136, respectively.

Therefore, when a size of data transmitted by the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment increases, a rate of increase in overhead size decreases as the MTU increases.

FIG. 35 illustrates a graph that expresses the table of FIG. 34.

The horizontal axis indicates a length of an IP packet payload that may be included in one IP packet, that is, a data length.

The vertical axis indicates data overhead.

Similarly to the above description of the table, overhead is unchanged when the data length is 1000, which is a small value. However, the graph indicates that when the data length increases, a rate of increase in the overhead decreases as the MTU increases.

FIG. 36 illustrates a table for comparing overhead sizes of packet headers according to data lengths when MTUs of each of IPv4 and IPv6 packets to which header compression is applied are 1500, 8000 and 16000. Each entry in the table is a number of bytes, and the unit is omitted in description below.

When the MTU is 1500, the number of fragmented IP packets (1, 2, 3, . . . ) increases as a data length increases (1000, 2000, 3000, . . . ) in both IPv4 and IPv6. Overhead is proportional to the data length. In this instance, IPv6 has greater overhead than IPv4.

When the MTU is 8000 or 16000 and the data length is 1000, IPv4 and IPv6 have overhead values of 48 and 68, respectively, which is the same as those of a case in which the MTU is 1500 and the same as those of a case in which header compression is not applied. However, the overhead values increase as the data length increases in different manners when compared to the case in which the MTU is 1500.

When the MTU is 8000 and the data length is 1000 to 8000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 48 and 68, respectively.

When the MTU is 8000 and the data length is 9000 to 16000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 56 and 74, respectively.

When the MTU is 8000 and the data length is 17000 to 20000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 68 and 80, respectively.

When the MTU is 16000 and the data length is 1000 to 16000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 48 and 68, respectively.

When the MTU is 16000 and the data length is 16000 to 20000, IPv4 and IPv6 have constant overhead values of 58 and 74, respectively.

An overhead size corresponding to a case in which the header compression is applied is less than an overhead size corresponding to a case in which the header compression is not applied.

FIG. 37 is a graph of the table of FIG. 36.

The horizontal axis indicates a length of an IP packet payload that may be included in one IP packet, that is, a data length.

The vertical axis indicates data overhead.

Similarly to the above description of the table, overhead is unchanged when the data length is 1000, which is a small value. However, the graph indicates that when the data length increases, a rate of increase in the overhead decreases as the MTU increases. In addition, the graph indicates that even when the MTU extension value is the same, overhead corresponding to the case in which the header compression is applied is less than overhead corresponding to the case in which header compression is not applied.

FIG. 38 illustrates an output processor module 8300 of a broadcast signal reception apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The output processor module 8300 may perform a reverse process of various compression/signal processing applied to enhance transmission efficiency of the transmission apparatus. The output processor module 8300 may include a BB frame header parser module, a header decompression module, an MTU reduction module 24000 and an IP multiplexing module. The output processor module 8300 of the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may perform a reverse process of the input formatting module 1000 of the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment. The MTU reduction module may include a packet length check module and a packet splitting module. Hereinafter, a specific operation of each module will be described.

The BB-frame header parser module may separate a header from service data which is demapped and decoded in the form of a BB frame. The BB-frame header parser module may perform a process of separating the header which is inserted into the BB frame by the BB-frame header insertion module of the transmission apparatus.

The header decompression module may restore headers compressed by the header compression module 16030 of the transmission apparatus such that overlapping headers are deleted or reconfigured.

The MTU reduction module 24000 may include a packet length check module 24010 and a packet splitting module 24020. The MTU reduction module 24000 may be used when an IP packet received by the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment is retransmitted through the Ethernet network or converted into an IP packet input through the Ethernet network by the broadcast signal transmission apparatus.

The packet length check module 24010 may determine whether IP packets input to the packet length check module 24010 are merged based on signaling information or original MTU mode information included in a BB frame header.

Upon determining that the input IP packets are merged, the packet length check module 24010 may output the merged IP packets and the original MTU mode information to the packet splitting module 24020. The packet splitting module 24020 may split the input IP packet based on the input original MTU mode information. The packet length check module 24010 may calculate CRC and insert the calculated CRC into the split IP packet.

The modules included in the output processor module 8300 described above may be independently applied to IP packets for each DR

IP packets independently processed and output for each DP may be input to the IP multiplexing module.

The IP multiplexing module may output the input IP packets in forms of IP streams.

Hereinafter, another example of the IP repacking scheme described with reference to FIGS. 30 to 38 will be described. Modules or terms used in description below may be the same concepts as those of the above-described modules or terms having the same names.

FIG. 39 illustrates an IP repacking module of the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Specifically, this figure illustrates an IP repacking module 16000 of a mode adaptation module applicable when an input stream is an IP stream according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a specific operation of the IP repacking module 16000 according to the present embodiment will be described by focusing on differences from the IP repacking module described with reference to FIG. 30.

The IP repacking module 16000 according to the present embodiment may include an IP packet parser module 39000, an IP packet reassembly module 39010, a packet merging module 39020 and an IP repacking control module 39030.

The IP packet parser module 39000 may receive IP packets output from a pre-processing block. The IP packet parser module 39000 may distinguish and output IP packets having the same type from service data or service component data input to the IP packet parser module 39000. Specifically, the IP packet parser module 39000 may verify whether IP fragments are present in the input IP packets, and verify whether continuously input IP packets have the same internal information. The internal information of the IP packets may include an IP address, a port number, a time stamp of RTP, or the like. In other words, the IP fragments may be generated when the broadcaster transmits data having a large capacity (for example, HDTV or UDTV class video component data) in a form of an IP packet through the Ethernet network.

In the present invention, an example of the large capacity data may correspond to an MTU of an IP packet transmitted through the Ethernet network, that is, 1500 bytes.

The above-mentioned IP fragments among the input IP packets may have the same concept as that of the above-mentioned consequence packets, and an IP fragment according to the present embodiment may be referred to as fragmented IP packet.

When the IP packets input to the IP packet parser module 39000 according to the present embodiment are the IP fragments, the respective IP fragments may have the same header.

The IP packet reassembly module 39010 may reassemble IP packets identified as IP fragments by the IP packet parser module 39000. A reassembly operation of the IP packet reassembly module 39010 may be controlled by the IP repacking control module 39030. A specific operation of the IP repacking control module 39030 will be described below. The IP packet reassembly module 39010 may reduce overhead of IP packets and enhance header compression efficiency by deleting the same (overlapping) headers included in IP fragments.

The packet merging module 39020 may receive the IP packets reassembled by the IP packet reassembly module 39010, and generate headers. The packet merging module 39020 according to the present embodiment may operate similarly to the packet merging module 16020 described above with reference to FIG. 30. Thus, the packet merging module 39020 according to the present embodiment may merge IP packets. A size of a merged IP packet may be determined based on an MTU extension value input to the IP repacking control module 39030.

The IP repacking control module 39030 may receive MTU extension values, TI length information, and the like of IP packets for each DP from the pre-processing module. The IP repacking control module 39030 may control the IP packet reassembly module 39010 and the packet merging module 39020 based on information input to the IP repacking control module 39030.

Operations of subblocks included in the above-described IP repacking module may be applied to respective embodiments of FIGS. 40 to 42.

FIG. 40 illustrates another example of splitting an IP packet when the IP packet is transmitted through the Ethernet network.

Specifically, FIG. 40 illustrates an example of a scheme of splitting an IP packet when the IP packet is transmitted through a network (or router) having a smaller MTU size than that of the Ethernet network described with reference to FIG. 31.

Hereinafter, this figure is described based on the description of FIG. 31.

Original stream data at the top of FIG. 40 is identical to the UD I-frame 17000 described with reference to FIG. 31( a).

IP packetizing in the middle of FIG. 40 illustrates an example in which a UD I-frame (2000 bytes) is divided into two IP packets by stream data when the IP packet is transmitted through the Ethernet network described with reference to FIG. 31( b) and an MTU is limited to 1500 bytes.

IP packet fragmentation at the bottom of FIG. 40 illustrates that one of the divided IP packets having a packet payload of 1448 bytes is divided again. The IP repacking module of the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may receive an IP stream including an IP packet that undergoes the IP packet fragmentation of this figure when an allowed MTU of a network for transmission of the IP packet is less than 1500 bytes.

As illustrated in the figure, the IP packet fragmentation corresponds to a scheme of dividing an IP packet according to a size of an MTU. This figure illustrates an example of dividing an IP packet when the MTU is less than 1500 bytes. Each IP packet according to the present embodiment may include payloads of 1000 bytes and 448 bytes. Each IP packet divided into have a unit less than 1500 bytes according to the present embodiment may include an IP header. In addition, some of divided IP packets may not include the UDP and the RTP.

Hereinafter, an operation of the IP repacking module performed when an IP packet input to the IP repacking module does not include one of the UDP and the RTP or both the UDP and the RTP will be described.

FIG. 41 illustrates an IP packet input to an input formatting module according to another embodiment of the present invention and an IP packet output through the IP repacking scheme performed by the input formatting module.

As described in the foregoing, each of two IP packets at the top of FIG. 41 may include an IP packet header and an IP packet payload. This figure illustrates a first IP packet including an IP packet header, a UDP header, and an IP packet payload (1448 bytes), and a second IP packet including an IP packet header, a UDP header, and an IP packet payload (512 bytes). Each IP packet is identical to the IP packet described with reference to FIG. 32 except that an RTP header is not included.

An IP packet including an IP packet header, a UDP header, and an IP packet payload (2000 bytes) is illustrated at the bottom of FIG. 41. The IP packet may be output through the IP repacking scheme performed by an IP repacking module according to another embodiment of the present invention with respect to the two IP packets at the top of FIG. 41.

The IP repacking module may merge IP packet payloads, and output the merged IP packet payload.

The header compression module 16030 may reconfigure IP packet headers, and output the reconfigured IP packet headers. A specific operation of the IP repacking module or the header compression module 16030 may be the same as that described with reference to FIGS. 30 to 33. However, since an RTP header is absent, a process of identifying an RTP time stamp may be omitted. The IP repacking module or the header compression module 16030 may perform IP repacking according to the following steps.

Step 1) Collect fragmented IP packets.

Step 2) Check IP address & Port number.

Step 3) Merge payload contents of fragmented IP packets in order of original occurrence.

Step 4) Reconfigure IP packet header information for the merged IP packet.

FIG. 42 illustrates an IP packet input to an input formatting module according to another embodiment of the present invention and an IP packet output through the IP repacking scheme performed by the input formatting module.

As described in the foregoing, each of two IP packets at the top of FIG. 42 may include an IP packet header and an IP packet payload. This figure illustrates a first IP packet including an IP packet header and an IP packet payload (1448 bytes), and a second IP packet including an IP packet header and an IP packet payload (512 bytes). Each IP packet is identical to the IP packet described with reference to FIG. 32 except that an RTP header and a UDP header are not included.

An IP packet including an IP packet header and an IP packet payload (2000 bytes) is illustrated at the bottom of FIG. 42. The IP packet may be output through the IP repacking scheme performed by an IP repacking module according to another embodiment of the present invention with respect to the two IP packets at the top of FIG. 42.

The IP repacking module may merge IP packet payloads, and output the merged IP packet payload.

The header compression module 16030 may reconfigure IP packet headers, and output the reconfigured IP packet headers. A specific operation of the IP repacking module or the header compression module 16030 may be the same as that described with reference to FIGS. 30 to 33. However, since an RTP header and a UDP header are absent, a process of identifying an RTP time stamp and a process of identifying a port number may be omitted. The IP repacking module or the header compression module 16030 may perform IP repacking according to the following steps.

Step 1) Collect fragmented IP packets.

Step 2) Check IP address.

Step 3) Merge payload contents of fragmented IP packets in order of original occurrence.

Step 4) Reconfigure IP packet header information for the merged IP packet.

IP packet header as abovementioned according to the present invention may include upper layer information, wherein the upper layer information may include first layer information or second layer information or third layer information. The first layer information according to the present invention may include IP layer information, and the second layer information according to the present invention may include the IP layer information and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) layer information. the third layer information according to the present invention may include the IP layer information, the RTP layer information and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) layer information.

FIG. 43 illustrates a method of transmitting a broadcast signal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may perform input formatting as described below before encoding service data.

The broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may output at least one input stream through at least one DP. At least one service or service component is transmitted through a data pipe. The service or service component transmitted through the DP may be referred to as service data. As described in the foregoing, the input stream input to the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may include at least one of IP, TS, and GS packets. The IP packet may include an IP packet header and an IP packet payload.

The IP packet header as abovementioned according to the present invention may include upper layer information, wherein the upper layer information may include first layer information, second layer information or third layer information. The first layer information according to the present invention may include IP layer information, and the second layer information according to the present invention may include the IP layer information and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) layer information. The third layer information according to the present invention may include the IP layer information, the RTP layer information and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) layer information.

When two or more fragmented IP packets are input to the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus may compress headers of the IP packets. The broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may extract two or more fragmented IP packets, and merge IP packet payloads included in the extracted fragmented IP packets to generate a merged IP packet. The merged IP packet may include a merged IP packet header. The broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may generate the merged IP packet header based on IP packet headers of the fragmented IP packets that are merged. Each of the fragmented IP packets may have a size less than or equal to an MTU of an IP packet transmitted through the Ethernet network, that is, 1500 bytes. Thus, the merged IP packet may have a size greater than each of the two or more fragmented IP packets that are merged. In addition, the merged IP packet may have a size greater than the MTU (1500 bytes) of the IP packet transmitted through the Ethernet network.

Thereafter, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may encode the service data in S43000.

Then, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may encode signaling data. The signaling data may include information indicating a type of an IP packet, a length of an IP packet, an MTU size of an IP packet, whether header compression is performed on an IP packet, and the like.

Then, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may generate at least one signal frame by mapping the service data to the signaling data in S43010.

Then, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may modulate the at least one generated signal frame by an OFDM scheme in S43020.

Then, the broadcast signal transmission apparatus according to the present embodiment may transmit a broadcast signal carrying the at least one signal frame modulated by the OFDM scheme in S43030.

FIG. 44 illustrates a method of receiving a broadcast signal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 44 may correspond to a reverse process of the broadcast signal transmission method described with reference to FIG. 43.

The broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may receive at least one broadcast signal in S44000.

Then, the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may demodulate the at least one received broadcast signal received by the OFDM scheme in S44010.

Then, the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may separate at least one signal frame from the broadcast signal demodulated by the OFDM scheme in S44020.

Then, the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may decode data included in the separated signal frame in S44030. The data decoded by the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may include signaling data and service data. The signaling data may include information indicating a type of an IP packet, a length of an IP packet, an MTU size of an IP packet, whether header compression is performed on an IP packet, and the like.

Then, the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may output the decoded service data. The broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may perform reverse processes of various compression/signal processing processes applied to enhance transmission efficiency. When the decoded service data includes a merged IP packet to which IP packet header compression according to the above-described embodiment is applied, the broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may generate a plurality of fragmented IP packet headers from a merged IP packet header by performing header decompression. A merged IP packet payload may be divided into a plurality of fragmented IP packet payloads based on information included in the generated fragmented IP packet headers and signaling information. The broadcast signal reception apparatus according to the present embodiment may output a plurality of fragmented IP packets. Each of the plurality of fragmented IP packets may include each of the generated fragmented IP packet headers and a fragmented IP packet payload corresponding to information included in the fragmented IP packet headers. The plurality of generated fragmented IP packets may have a size of less than 1500 bytes corresponding to an MTU size of an IP packet transmissible through the Ethernet network.

The above description with reference to FIGS. 43 and 44 may be interpreted based on an operation according to each embodiment of the broadcast signal transmission/reception apparatus described above.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Both apparatus and method inventions are mentioned in this specification and descriptions of both of the apparatus and method inventions may be complementarily applicable to each other. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for transmitting broadcast signals, the method comprising: input formatting input streams, wherein the input formatting includes: dividing the input streams into each data transmission path including one or multiple service or service component, wherein each of the input streams includes at least one IP (Internet Protocol) packet having a variable length, wherein each IP packet includes a packet header and a packet payload; and compressing each the packet header, encoding data in the each data transmission path; building at least one signal frame, wherein each the signal frame includes the encoded data and a signaling data; modulating at least one of the signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme; and transmitting the broadcast signals carrying at least one of the modulated signal frame.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two IP packets in each of the input streams are fragmented IP packets, the compressing each the packet header comprising: merging a packet payload of each IP packet into a merged packet payload; and reconfiguring an IP packet header for the merged packet payload based on the packet header of each IP packet.
 3. The method of claim 2, the reconfiguring comprising: deleting repeated data included in the packet header, wherein the packet header includes upper layer encapsulation information.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the upper layer encapsulation information includes one of first layer information or second layer information or third layer information, wherein the first layer information includes IP layer information and the second layer information includes the IP layer information and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) layer information and the third layer information includes the IP layer information, the RTP layer information and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) layer information.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the IP packet header for the merged packet payload is reconfigured based on information of the merged packet payload.
 6. A method for receiving broadcast signals, the method comprising: receiving the broadcast signals, wherein the broadcast signals includes at least one signal frame, wherein the at least one signal frame includes at least one IP (Internet Protocol) packet having a reconfigured packet header and a merged packet payload; demodulating the received broadcast signals by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme; parsing at least one signal frame from the demodulated broadcast signals; decoding the data in each data transmission path, wherein each the data transmission path including one or multiple service or service component; and output processing the decoded data, wherein the outputting includes: decompressing the reconfigured packet header; and outputting at least one IP stream.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the decompressing comprising: dividing the merged packet payload; and reconfiguring an IP packet header for each divided packet payload based on the divided packet payload.
 8. The method of claim 7, the IP packet header includes upper layer encapsulation information.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the upper layer encapsulation information includes one of first layer information or second layer information or third layer information, wherein the first layer information includes IP layer information and the second layer information includes the IP layer information and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) layer information and the third layer information includes the IP layer information, the RTP layer information and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) layer information.
 10. The method of claim 7, wherein the IP packet header for the merged packet payload is reconfigured based on information of the merged packet payload.
 11. An apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, the apparatus comprising: an input formatter for input formatting input streams, wherein the input formatting includes: a divider for dividing the input streams into each data transmission path including one or multiple service or service component, wherein each of the input streams includes at least one IP (Internet Protocol) packet having a variable length, wherein each IP packet includes a packet header and a packet payload; and a compressor for compressing each the packet header, an encoder for encoding data in the each data transmission path; a frame builder for building at least one signal frame, wherein each the signal frame includes the encoded data and a signaling data; and a modulator for modulating at least one of the signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least two IP packets in each of the input streams are fragmented IP packets, the compressor processing: merging a packet payload of each IP packet into a merged packet payload; and reconfiguring an IP packet header for the merged packet payload based on the packet header of each IP packet.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12, the reconfiguring comprising: deleting repeated data included in the packet header, wherein the packet header includes upper layer encapsulation information.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the upper layer encapsulation information includes one of first layer information or second layer information or third layer information, wherein the first layer information includes IP layer information and the second layer information includes the IP layer information and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) layer information and the third layer information includes the IP layer information, the RTP layer information and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) layer information
 15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the IP packet header for the merged packet payload is reconfigured based on information of the merged packet payload.
 16. An apparatus for receiving broadcast signals, the apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving the broadcast signals, wherein the broadcast signals includes at least one signal frame, wherein the at least one signal frame includes at least one IP (Internet Protocol) packet having a reconfigured packet header and a merged packet payload; a demodulator for demodulating the received broadcast signals by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme; a frame parser for parsing at least one signal frame from the demodulated broadcast signals; a decoder for decoding the data in each data transmission path, wherein each the data transmission path including one or multiple service or service component; and an output processor for output processing the decoded data, wherein the an output processor performs: decompressing the reconfigured packet header; and outputting at least one IP stream.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the decompressing comprising: dividing the merged packet payload; and reconfiguring an IP packet header for each divided packet payload based on the divided packet payload.
 18. The apparatus of claim 17, the IP packet header includes upper layer encapsulation information.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the upper layer encapsulation information includes one of first layer information or second layer information or third layer information, wherein the first layer information includes IP layer information and the second layer information includes the IP layer information and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) layer information and the third layer information includes the IP layer information, the RTP layer information and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) layer information
 20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the IP packet header for the merged packet payload is reconfigured based on information of the merged packet payload. 